


Captain of Your Heart

by TheTwins



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Dino - Freeform, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff, For June the 8th, Joshua - Freeform, Jun is a horrible pirate, JunHao - Freeform, M/M, Mild Angst, Morally Dubious Characters, Most Svt members only make cameos, Pirate AU, Pirate!Jun, Romance, Slow Burn, Swearing, Swindler!Minghao, dk - Freeform, hoshi - Freeform, jeongcheol - Freeform, meanie, possible backstabbing, such as, verkwan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:39:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 51,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTwins/pseuds/TheTwins
Summary: Jun just wanted to be a captain in the Queen's Navy, but now he's the captain of a pirate ship with a potentially mutinous crew. Minghao just wanted to get rich, but now he's scamming people by pretending to be a princess from some far away land. When Jun accidentally captures the ship Minghao is traveling on, they string along Jun's first mate, Woozi; the talkative cook, Jeonghan; a mysterious new crew member, S. Coups; and the pair of friends pretending to be Minghao's maids, Vernon and Seungkwan. It's either a disaster in the making or the hand of fate.





	1. A New Type of Pirate

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovely readers,
> 
> Junhao is one of my favorite ships so this is a little gift for June 8th, 2017! It will be an ongoing story and I hope you enjoy it :) Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, etc. at the bottom and check us out at castor-and-pollux on Tumblr if you have time <3
> 
> Castor

“Captain, what were you thinking?!” 

A hard punch landed on Jun’s shoulder and he turned around sheepishly, “Ah, Woozi.”

“Don’t ‘ah, Woozi’ me. You just let go of seventeen barrels of spices and who knows what else!” Growling, his first mate thrust a finger towards the crew on the deck below. “What sort of pirate ship lets go of its plunder? Haven’t you heard the talks of mutiny? It’s only been a month! I swear, if you goddamn do this again-”

Casting an eye over his crew, Jun’s gaze rested on their most recent addition leaning a bit too comfortably against the mast. Tall, dark-haired with piercing eyes and a commanding voice - definitely mutiny material. Introduced himself as S. Coups, or so Jun had heard from the cook. “Don’t worry, Jihoonie, I know the crew. Besides, letting the ship go got us safe passage with the Dutch.” It wasn't true in the slightest but he winked for the added effect.

Jihoon frowned suspiciously, but Jun waved him away. It was getting dark and he needed to figure out his heading for their next stop at a port. Besides, Jihoon was so much shorter than him that from the deck, it probably looked like Jun was talking to the air. He couldn’t have that be his image as the captain, now could he? As Jun closed the heavy oak doors to his quarters behind him, he heard the boisterous talking below resume. Apparently, his crew didn’t feel the need to share whatever the newest story about someone drinking too much and getting deck duty was while he was in earshot. Whatever. Grimacing now that he was alone, he mumbled under his breath, “What a great captain. Can’t negotiate with prisoners, lying to your own first mate! Now a mutiny, too…”

He sighed and slumped at his desk. Mindlessly switching from one instrument to the next as he set a heading for the nearest pirate port, he at least patted himself on the back for being talented at navigating. In fact, Jun had originally wanted to join the Queen’s Navy- “But then life! Who wants to wash the deck for those asshats anyways? And wait two hundred thousand years to be promoted? No thank you. Being captain here is so much better.” At least it would be, if he had any pirate-like tendencies. Unfortunately, he just wanted to be able to sail freely with a loyal crew that respected him. He hadn’t really realized how much smuggling, drinking, stealing, womanizing, and general immorality was involved.

He still remembered the first time he went to port as a pirate. With a naive smile, he had asked for beer. That was the night his entire first crew resigned, citing the want to sail under a real pirate and not a kid playing Captain Hook. Of course, they voiced their dissent in much more violent means, but that was a story for another day. After that, Jun learned to only drink hard spirits like tequila or rum.

“But,” Jun reminded himself with a practiced smirk at the mirror, “at least you look cool in pirate clothes. Such a sharp black tux, not to mention the stunning red cape, and best of all the hat-” 

“Are you talking to yourself again, Captain?”

Scrambling out of his chair, Jun called towards the door, “Not any more than you do, Jeonghan!

“Touché.” Tied-back blonde locks and the smell of perfume wafted into Jun’s room. Quite unusual for a pirate ship and its varying degrees of sanitation, but who was Jun to care about that if Jeonghan made such good food?

“What’s for dinner?” The young captain licked his lips in anticipation as Jeonghan set down a covered plate in front of him.

“Oh, you know. This and that.” Grinning devilishly, the cook bid farewell quickly, on his way to where the crew was waiting. With just a whiff of perfume the sole evidence that Jeonghan had even been in his room, it seemed that the cook had some very special news to tell the crew that night. If he was first-rate in cuisine, Jeonghan no-doubt had to be at least second-rate at spreading rumors, a third of them made up about the crew, a third about himself, and a third true. At times, Jun wondered if Jeonghan knew that Jun heard each and every rumor through Jihoon, and at other times, he wondered if the man would even care. No matter, he was sure the rumor today would be about the captain and his dealings with the Dutch captain, whether Jeonghan worded it as the brilliant captain tricking the Dutch into giving pirates right of way or as the naive boy who hides away in his quarters making the blunder of the century.

Laughing softly to himself, Jun uncovered his dinner and dug in. A warm meal sure did make him feel better after his failed attempt at piracy that day. Thinking back to how the captain of the ship he had taken had changed his story from having a wife to provide for to a wife, two kids, several sisters, and a dog, Jun really felt like a fool for believing him and he was sure others would agree. “But what if he actually did? The poor kids would be orphaned and-” Looking in the mirror, he blinked twice and almost slapped himself. Having to put together a second crew after the unfortunate incident with the beer was hard enough, Jun doubted he would be able to escape a mutiny with his ship still intact, despite his firm belief that Jihoon would somehow end up unscathed. No, he had better hope the rumor tonight wasn’t mutiny related. Putting on his best pep talk face, he stabbed a finger at his reflection. “Stop being so soft-hearted, for heaven’s sake! Tomorrow, you’re going to go capture a ship, sell your spoils at port, go out drinking, get yourself a few girls, and then your crew is going to adore you and the Queen’s Navy will know you’re a real pirate!”

He winced at the last few ideas. Maybe it’d be better to just stick to finding a ship to capture first and worry about the looting and drinking later. And the girls even later. Groaning, Jun traced his fingers over the rim of his beloved captain’s hat. It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, if y'all have any ideas on what Jun's pirate ship should be named (e.g. something Seventeen related), I'd love to read them in the comments below! :)
> 
> ~Castor


	2. An Accidental Encounter

In Jun’s dream, cannons were firing and his crew was yelling. Something about an incoming ship. That was nice. Jun liked ships. He looked around slowly; why was he standing at the wheel? Jihoon seemed to be trying to yell something at him, but it simply went in one ear and out the other. He really should buy Jihoonie some milk once they get to port, Jun thought to himself with a chuckle and then berated himself for forgetting to call his first mate Woozi with other pirates around. The poor man’s jaw was clenched tight as he frantically directed the crew -maybe add in some tea to reduce stress, Jun considered.

All of a sudden, he saw Jihoon’s face warp with surprise. Jun followed Jihoon’s gaze down, stopping at his own hands. Wait, when had he started steering?

“Heave the sails! We’re headed straight for ‘em!”

Jun’s hands froze on the wheel as he looked at Jihoon in confusion.

His first mate yelled back, “Captain! Brace yourself!”

As the two ships collided, Jun tried to grab onto the railing but lost his footing and was thrown against the doors to his quarters. Wincing at the pain in his side, he tasted something metallic in his mouth. It was a bit familiar but he couldn’t quite put a name to it.

Rust?

Or maybe it was that weird alloy thingy he couldn’t pronounce. Amal-something? He licked the inside of his cheek for another taste.

“B-”

“-lood.” Jun blinked twice as everything around him sped up back to normal speed. This was real. There was another ship and his crew was about to b-

“-oard!” Jihoon threw the first harpoon. As his first mate and the rest of the pirates scrambled onto the passenger ship they had crashed their stern into, Jun jumped to his feet and joined them. Hands gripping onto a spare rope, he lassoed a nearby mast, backpedaled several meters, and launched himself into the air.

Barely missing Jihoon by a few feet, Jun triumphantly landed right in front of an encircled group of prisoners, only stumbling slightly at the way his vision swam in and out of focus. Without sparing a breath, he split up the crew. “You, check the hold! And you, go search the quarters!” Throwing on the arrogant smirk he had perfected in the mirror, Jun took a glance at the ship he was on, the growing headache shoved aside. It was a passenger ship of decent size, but unfortunately that meant little plunder for his crew, who were currently circling the passengers like hyenas. Not much room for mistakes on his part.

“What’s taking him so long? You, go help him. And if you’re not back here faster than a shark, you’ll be joining them in the water!” Jun snarled as he watched the man scurry off. The fear would keep them in line, or so he hoped in his less than fully conscious state. The headache was coming back but Jun mentally locked it away. Turning to the passengers, Jun addressed them next, “You lot must have been cursed to have met me, the one and only Captain Wen Junhui.” He brandished his sword and his crew followed suit. “Now hand over your valuables or face the consequences!”

Watching carefully as his crew stuffed jewelry, coins, certificates, and other items into makeshift bags, Jun noted the high number of families and women on board. A competent pirate would take the women and sink the ship, but Jun wasn’t exactly a competent pirate. And he had captured a ship -even if he had not been and was still not entirely conscious- other pirate-y actions could wait.

“Alright, you bunch of-” he halted for a second.

“-useless scurvy dogs,” Jihoon whispered from his side.

“Useless scurvy dogs!” Jun swung his sword with vigor, “Move those lazy good for nothin’ asses back to the ship on the double! Better store the plunder below deck and don’t even think of keepin’ a coin for yourself or Woozi here will slit your throat.”

As Jihoon shoved the crew along, a deep voice rose from the back. “Why can’t we take the women with us?” It was S. Coups.

“Yeah, yeah. Why not?” Another pirate drawled.

“Because...we gotta leave people to tell stories, don’t we? Where else you think ‘em legends come from, aye?”

“Stories? Are you sure you’re even a pirate?” A new voice cut cleanly through the air amid grumbles to make way and move yer sorry ass thataway.

“And who are you?” Jun asked softly as the two pirates he had sent down to the quarters finally pushed their way to the front of the crowd, with three women between them, hands tied behind their backs. The two on the left and right seemed to be of lower standing, wearing paler colors with their hair braided simply. Leftie had a chubbier face with rosy cheeks and Rightie had piercing eyes above a tense frown. However, it was the woman in the middle that caught Jun’s attention. Brown wavy hair framed an alluring angular face above a velvety red dress that hid her figure. A pirate or two whistled but Jun silenced them with a glare.

One of the pirates flanking the women stumbled forward, “Sorry, Cap’n, but these three strumpets-”

“Who are you calling a strumpet?” Leftie kicked the pirate in front of her, planting her foot on his back firmly. “I’ll have you know that my lady is the-”

“Shut up!” Rightie hissed but it was too late. Every pirate’s eyes had widened at the title and its accompanied dreams of horse-drawn carriages, beautiful green lawns, gold, and even more gold.

Inwardly cursing the gods for testing his pirate-y-ness, Jun sheathed his sword with a swish. First, they had chanced upon a ship. Next, he somehow steered correctly while half awake and captured the ship. And now there were passengers aboard to be held hostage -specifically, women. It was as if someone had overheard his check-list for being a pirate. If so, he might as well play the part.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A real live lady.” Jun drew out every syllable as he stopped in front of the woman in the middle. Now that his entire crew knew she had money, it wouldn’t bode well to leave her behind. Neither did she look to be weak-willed, which was good for him he supposed, if he ever had to help her escape. Jun sighed. His headache was coming back. Either way, there was no way out of taking her prisoner. He brought a hand up to feel the seams of a velvet sleeve, glancing up at the lady. “Bet you have a nice family who misses you. In fact,” he let her sleeve drop, “I bet they would be willing to pay to have you back. Am I wrong?” She glared back at him. Smirking, he turned to his crew. “Well, that’s settled. We’ll be taking these three and having ourselves a nice kidnapping ransom, aye?”

“Aye!”

“Aye, aye!”

“Back to the ship!”

“You heard cap’n. Back to the ship!”

“I’ll take these two then?” Jihoon gestured at Leftie and Rightie.

Jun nodded, “Keep them in your quarters and busy the crew with something else. No one is to touch a single hair on their heads without my approval.”

“Yes, captain!”

“And as for you, my lady,” Jun swept her into a bridal carry, “you’re all mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> This work will update around every Monday and Thursdays! :) Feel free to leave suggestions (I'm thinking he might end up naming his ship after something Minghao related?)
> 
> ~Castor


	3. Who's The Captain Here?

This was quite possibly the worst task Jihoon had ever agreed to.

“Can you two just goddamn sit still-” Jihoon dodged yet another attempt by Leftie to bodyslam him, his hand itching to grab his sword.

“Never! How dare you-” Leftie kicked him in the shin before losing her balance and falling back onto Jihoon’s bed.

“That’s it,” Jihoon growled, “I’ve had enough.” Grinding his teeth at the sight of some random strumpet sitting on his favorite pillows, he reached out his hands for her neck only to be cut off by a high-pitched scream.

“Noooo, don’t touch me!” Leftie wailed as she scooted back further into his bed, “Stop! Don’t come any closer! I’m- I’m not a girl!”

“What?” Jihoon stopped in front of his bed dumbfounded.

“I’m- I’m-” Leftie’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape as if she- no, he?- had said something he should not have.

“Ahem.” Two pairs of eyes swiveled to the corner. Rightie had flung off his wig to reveal short curly hair. Clearly not female. “Yeah, whatever. We’re guys.” Jihoon’s eyes widened. Rightie must have been hiding his lower voice by hissing. “We only dressed up like this ‘cuz we’re the lady’s bodyguards. Isn’t that right, Boo?”

“Oh, um-” The ‘o’ shape disappeared, “Yeah, what he said!”

Jihoon took one look at Leftie and one look at Rightie and kicked Leftie off his bed. Man or woman, no one but Jihoon could stand, sleep, or even sit there. “I swear to God,” he groaned as he made for the door, “you two, just stay here. Stay. Here.”

 

VI.VIII

 

“You’re the what?”

“Maria. The daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

“Huh.”

Cape discarded on his bed, Jun was leaning against his desk, elbow propping up his body. Next to him in his chair was the lady, hair slightly disheveled and wrists freed from the rope. Closer up now, she had tantalizingly red lips and beautiful sun-kissed skin. Quite a picture, if you asked him.

The glares traded for eyes turned toward the floor, she twirled her hair around her index finger, sometimes biting her lip softly. “I’m sure you want to keep me here and force my father to pay your ransom…”

“I do-”

“-But.”

“But?” Jun raised an eyebrow.

“You know,” she whispered and he leaned in closer to hear. “If you free me, I’m sure my father will want to reward my savior and his men. With gold and the like…” The lady looked up at him through her eyelashes, a coy smile dancing across her lips.

“Tempting, m’lady,” Jun let his voice drop an octave as brought his hand to her chin, tilting her face up to his. “But I’d much rather have you. What do you think?”

“Hmm.” She lowered her gaze to his hand, slender fingers reaching up to trace small circles near his wrist. “What do I get in return?”

“You know, freedom…” he shifted closer, “and the like-”

“Captain!”

“Woozi.” Jun jumped to his feet as his first mate burst into his quarters. Casually running a hand through his hair, he returned to his previous lean against the desk. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, actually.” Jihoon took one look at the spreading blush on Jun’s face and glared at him. “Multiple things plus one. Let’s go outside, I have to talk to you alone.”

“Alright.”

Closing the door behind him with a wink and promise to come back to his lady, Jun checked that there were no other pirates in sight and suddenly proceeded to slide down into a crouch, his head buried in his hands. For a good minute, Jihoon could hear him doing a breathing exercise. Breathe in for four, hold for eight, and breathe out for seven. Repeat. “Jihoonie.”

“Yes?”

Startlingly soft chocolate eyes peeked out from between his laced fingers, the telling blush painted over his cheeks, and his eyes slightly clouded over. “Jihoonie. She-” Breathe in, breathe out. “She flirted with me.”

“Mhm and?”

Jun’s gaze fell to the ground in disbelief. “This the first time I’ve flirted with someone successfully. And before you ask, the prostitutes you tried to introduce me to don’t count.”

“Good for you. Lemme guess, your heart is beating a million times a minute?” Jihoon let out a deep sigh as Jun placed his hand over his heart.

He looked up hopefully, “Is that normal?”

“For fuck’s sake, you’re hopeless.” Pulling Jun up by his collar, Jihoon jabbed a finger at the captain’s chest. “She’s trying to seduce you.” Another jab. “Seduce. As in trick you. And before you ask, that’s just as bad as prostitutes.”

“Oh, well,” Jun’s eyes cleared back to a piercing brown. Resting his chin on top of folded hands, Jun thought of the prostitutes at port. Then he thought of the lady in his room. He straightened up with the same practiced smirk. “Two can play the game. Can’t I just seduce her instead?”

“Again, you’re hopeless. Not the biggest problem right now, though.” Jun tilted his head questioningly. “Her two maids? They’re guys.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me. They’re guys. Supposedly her bodyguards who were pretending to be her maids as their disguise.”

Jun looked back at the room behind him. “If they’re not girls, what about her?” He remembered that the dress had hidden her figure. Perhaps that was not without reason.

Jihoon shrugged, “Up to you to find out. What do you want me to do with those two?”

“Make them join the crew.” As Jihoon moved to leave, Jun called him back for a second. He lowered his voice to a whisper as he bent down to Jihoon’s eye level. “Another problem. The lady isn’t who she says she is either.”

“What do you mean?” Jihoon whispered back.

“She says she’s the daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and we both know that the Archbishop of Canterbury-”

“-doesn’t have any children.” Jihoon finished grimly.

Jun shrugged, “At least some of boarding school stuck, aye? Too bad they didn’t teach us how to be pirates.”

“Aye, captain.” Jihoon grinned at the memory, “I’ll be on deck. We’re headed to port by tomorrow night. You have a plan for all this?”

Jun smirked and tapped his hat, the same fire burning in his eyes that had enticed Jihoon to join under Jun as first mate months ago, “Of course. I’m the captain, ain’t I?”


	4. Bring Back the Strumpets

“What’s this?”

“Weren’t they strumpets?”

“Can’t we turn ‘em back to strumpets? I liked them better as strumpets.”

“Shut your traps.” Jihoon barked at the crew he had called together on deck. Sometimes, he wondered why Jun couldn’t have recruited some pirates with more common sense. But then again, he’d seen enough of the world to know that that quality was pretty scarce. “Alright, you useless scalawags. Look here,” he shoved Leftie forward, dress changed out for a shirt and trousers, “This here is a man, plain ‘n simple. Name is Boo Seungkwan. The other one, call ‘im Vernon or somethin’ like that. Him and him, they were the lady’s bodyguards and now they’re gonna be part of the crew, aye?”

Murmurs of discontented ayes swirled around the crowd as Jihoon pointed their two newest recruits to wiping down the deck.

“And what about the lady?” It was S. Coups again.

Jihoon met his stare calmly, “She’s the captain’s. Anyone touch a hair on her head and I feed you to the sharks in pieces smaller than your little finger, aye?”

“Aye.”

Sighing at the confusion that was sure to follow what he was about to say next, Jihoon braced himself mentally and prayed for Jun to hurry up and come help him. “As for our recent spoils, we’re going to dock tomorrow night. When you lot get your sorry asses to port, we’re gonna barter ‘em necklaces and such for spices.”

“Spices?”

“What is a spices?”

“Why ain’t we gonna get gold?”

“Yeah, why not gold?”

“I want gold!”

Jihoon sighed again. This would take a while.

 

VI.VIII

 

“This is all your fault!” Seungkwan shoved his partner with soapy hands.

“My fault?” Vernon gave him a patronizing look. “I’m not the one who announced that we were with a _lady_. I’m not the one who said we weren’t _girls_. I’m-”

“Stop, stoppp with that stupid grin.” Seungkwan flicked some of the soap suds from his fingers. “Okay, maybe, just maybe, it’s not your fault. But it’s definitely not my fault. And it’s never you-know-who’s fault.”

“Right, Boo.”

They both glanced at the captain’s quarters. “How do you think he’s doing? All alone in there and everything? Not to mention that nasty pirate-”

Vernon’s eyes shifted to the side, keeping a close watch on the first mate. “ _She._ It’s how do you think _she_ ’s doing all alone in there.”

“But you-know-who isn’t alone, Vernon, that’s the problem. Did you see how that pirate was looking at her? Like she was some meal?”

Seungkwan’s nose scrunched up in disgust, but Vernon knew it was really worry eating away at him. Sighing fondly, he ruffled Seungkwan’s hair so it flopped over his eyes. “Don’t worry. Minghao knows what he’s doing.”

“What  _she_ ’s doing.” Vernon raised his eyebrows in mock hurt before they both started giggling and resumed to mopping down the deck.

Above them, they could hear the short man who the others had called the first mate resume speaking.

“For the last time,” he growled and tried to make himself appear taller. “I said, spices. Do you understand? Spices-”

“Don’t you feel slightly sorry for him?” Seungkwan cracked a grin.

Vernon grinned back, “He’s the reason why we’re here...so, no.” He looked up with an unreadable expression as two large doors flew open and the captain emerged. “Definitely am not going to feel bad for that one either once Minghao has his way.”

“ _Her_ way.”

“Right. We should help her though, y’know, as her bodyguards.”

Seungkwan wrung out the towel before returning to the next foot of plank. “How? She’s literally stuck in his quarters-”

Vernon pressed a finger to Seungkwan’s lips. “Shhh, come here.” Scooting closer so his mouth was next to the other’s ear, he whispered, “Tomorrow at port, we’ll….”

 

VI.VIII

 

“We’ll sell the plunder for spices.”

Jihoon watched as Jun held the crew rapt while he talked, leaning forward on the wheel with a slow but deliberate drawl that seemed to say ‘I know something you don’t, but I’ll explain, just for you.’

“There’s this sort of triangular trade that all the merchants use. Get something like say our watches and necklaces, trade ‘em for something more valuable like spices, trade 'em again for something like silk, and if you keep the cycle turning, there’s profit every time! Every damn time.” A wide smile danced across his face. If possible, the fire in his eyes burned brighter and the crew listened on, like moths drawn to a light. His next words were whispers but the breeze easily carried them to the crew’s waiting ears. “And men,” he let the anticipation rise before reaching into a pocket to reveal two glinting coins, “profit means gold.”

“Hurray!”

“Spices it is!”

“Aye! To spices!”

As the crew cheered and otherwise celebrated not understanding what they were about to do, Jihoon made his way up to Jun’s side. “That went much better than when I said it,” he conceded with a huff.

Jun laughed, “Doesn’t it always?”

Jihoon frowned at him. “Shut up. You still have to worry about tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Jun nodded. Jihoon nodded, too. It would be quite a bit of work, selling off all the plunder, watching the crew, watching the newest additions to the crew, making sure no one got too drunk, checking the brothels- “To leave or not to leave.”

“What?”

Jun groaned overdramatically and Jihoon fought the urge to sock his captain in the gut. “ _Hamlet_ , Jihoon. How could you not remember?”

He grit his teeth. “I remember perfectly. It’s ‘to be or not to be.’”

“Right.” Jun glanced at the doors behind him. “But for me, it’s to leave or not to leave-”

“Leave her, you mean?” Jun nodded and Jihoon grimaced. In all fairness, he should have expected it. “Just stay. I can deal with the crew for another night at port, you always end up drunk and clueless somewhere anyways.”

“Hey-”

Jihoon glared again. “Don’t try lying. I’ve dragged your soddy arse back to the ship more times than I can count. Just watch yourself, I can’t guarantee the two recruits don’t try anything.” Jun opened his mouth to protest but Jihoon continued with a whisper, “And careful with the plan. Just because triangular trade works for merchants with no morals don’t mean it’ll work for pirates with ‘em.”

“I know,” Jun shrugged sheepishly. “Why not try it once, though? Maybe it’ll work. But you keep half the spices just in case.” Jihoon rolled his eyes and Jun smiled, patting the guard of his sword. “Don’t worry so much, Jihoonie.” He looked back to the doors again, the smile turning into a sly smirk. “Don’t worry at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> This chapter is a bit slow but next chapter, we'll be back with some fun and action ;)
> 
> Castor


	5. A Night Off

“What about that one?”

Vernon was subtly pointing at one of the pirates in the mess hall, leaning against a pillar like them. He had a hook where his right hand should have been and a long scar down his forearm. Off to the side by himself, he was messily trying to stab his dinner with the hook and failing. Seungkwan pursed his lips. “Doesn’t look very friendly.”

Vernon looked around once before rolling his eyes at his partner. “They’re pirates, Boo. We talked about this at dinner yesterday. None of them look friendly.”

“What about me?”

Vernon’s hands flew to the sheath where his sword should have been, cursing under his breath when his fingers only found cloth and air. Carefully shifting to the left so he blocked Seungkwan, he appraised the man in front of him. With a lean build more suited for theft than piracy and blonde hair groomed too well on a ship where there was no one to compliment it, the cook seemed quite out of place. Slowly, he let his hands fall back to his sides. “You’re all right.” And maybe a little bit dangerous.

“Just alright?” The cook pouted and beckoned them to sit down with him. “I’ve been told I’m very friendly. Name’s Jeonghan, by the way.”

Vernon took Seungkwan’s hand under the table, their sign for ‘let me do the talking.’ Casually, he leaned forward to copy the cook. “I’m sure you have. Know anyone else friendly around here?”

The cook grinned devilishly and Vernon made a mental note to change his first impression. _Definitely_ dangerous.

“Over there.” Vernon and Seungkwan followed Jeonghan’s gaze to a group of pirates huddled at a far table. They were all looking to the middle. There, a pirate was drawing them in with tales of all the luxuries they would be able to afford at port once they had the gold.

“Rum and women, men. What’s better than that?”

“Women and rum!”

The table broke into cheers and the cook turned back to Vernon and Seungkwan. “The one in the middle -you can call him Coups- if we had to bet on who’s most likely to lead a mutiny, my money’s on him.”

“And why would we want to be friends with a mutineer?” Seungkwan eyed him curiously.

Jeonghan shrugged as he got up to leave. “Dunno, bet you could introduce yourselves in a bit when we dock though.”

The two watched him leave, hopping into another conversation easily as if he hadn’t just been talking about mutiny a second ago. Vernon sighed and let his gaze drift to the man Jeonghan had been talking about.

“I don’t like it.” Seungkwan cut in.

Vernon squeezed his hand. “I don’t either. That cook is the rumor type, but it might be our best bet.”

Seungkwan squeezed back, and they sat in silence as the ship pulled into port, eyes carefully watching the pirate in the middle. Little did they know, eyes were watching them as well.

 

VI.VIII

 

Frowning, Jihoon watched the two recruits whisper softly as the rest of the crew cheered and made for the deck. He would need to speak to Jeonghan soon. Jun didn’t see the cook as a threat, but that didn’t mean Jihoon trusted him. He was first mate for a reason and it wasn’t just because he had known Jun from when they were in the same orphanage and then attended the same boarding school together.

No, he remembered both places vividly.

The first time he met Jun, the boy had still been a shy, sniffling mess with a favorite stuffed animal. Jihoon had given him a careless glance and looked away, but then the boy walked up to him and smiled. “Let’s be friends!”

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

“I said no.”

The bickering ensued for almost a year. Despite Jihoon’s hisses to shut up and play dead or run away, Jun stood out, always giving away his food rations or getting beat up trying to fight a bully. And always asking to be friends. In that year, Jihoon had talked more than he had in the seven years before.

One time when Jun was running from an especially scary teenager, Jihoon had grabbed him by the shirt and hidden them both in an empty closet. They eventually got caught arguing inside, but after that, Jihoon hung around Jun more, making sure he didn’t get into any unneeded trouble.

They were even more inseparable in boarding school; the headmaster finally consented to letting them room together after their thirty-first time sneaking outside the dorms during mandatory study time. By then, the soft-hearted Jun that Jihoon remembered had become easygoing and charismatic as well.

Jihoon would like to say he didn't change much himself, but that wasn’t true. It couldn’t have been true, considering how much time he spent studying with Jun, beating him when they sparred with swords, or losing whenever it was hand-to-hand. After all, Jihoon went from thinking he’d hold some boring administrative position in some small store to being first mate on a pirate ship.

“Jun should count his blessings that I’m still here,” Jihoon growled under his breath as he made his way up to the deck, making sure to keep the two recruits in sight. “Come on, you lot! These necklaces ain’t gonna get up and walk themselves to be sold- move it!” Yelling at the crew to get off the ship, he took one last worried glance at the captain’s quarters. Hopefully, Jun would be fine without him for once. He had a sword after all.

 

VI.VIII

 

Jun closed the doors behind him, dropping his cape, captain’s hat, and sword beside the bed.

A soft, teasing voice came from his side near the chair, “What- undressing already?”

“Do you have a better idea?” Jun extended a hand to the lady.

She looked to the side for a second before taking his hand and standing up. Then, something soft pressed against his torso as she rested her chin in the crook of his neck, murmuring softly so her words seemed to whisp over his collarbones. Her voice was low and it drifted. “We could go to port. Candlelit dinner, much more romantic.”

“But it’s just me and you here. With a candle.” Jun smirked down at her, “Much more romantic than seeing my crew.”

The lady bit her lip and Jun tried to shift to get a better view. It was dark outside and the small candle he’d mentioned flickered on his desk with each gust of wind from the open window. He looked over her hair and makeup -very even hairline, might be a wig. The softness against his torso though, he really couldn’t tell if it was real or not. Maybe he should’ve taken Jihoon up last time on his offer about prostitutes. Then he’d probably know.

“I guess this is alright.” She looked up at him through her eyelashes before tugging on his wrist. “Bed?”

He nodded and let her pull him down on top of her. In the candlelight, slight shadows fell on both of them, sometimes so small they appeared to be a stray seam, sometimes so large they seemed to be whispering to the two, offering them a haven to hide inside together. When the candlelight washed over the lady beneath him, it illuminated her angular features and set a glow upon her skin. Her breath hitched as if waiting apprehensively and he knew he had done the same. Her slender hands in his were soft. He reached up to smooth his thumb over her blushing cheek. Her lips looked soft, too.

Leaning down, Jun pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss, letting out a content sigh as she kissed back, a hand fumbling against his side in attempts to remove his shirt. Smiling against her lips, he moved to leave a kiss and slight bite on her jaw before sitting up.

Throwing off his shirt in one fluid motion, Jun noticed that his breathing was uneven. Voice husky with a tinge of warmth, he helped her to her knees, back to him. “You, too.”

Beneath the red dress, she was wearing a white nightdress of sorts of a similar cut. Gently pulling her into his lap, he nuzzled at the ruffles adorning her neck -high enough to hide an Adam’s apple. He kissed above it anyways.

 

VI.VIII

 

Minghao shivered. An arm was wrapped firmly around his waist and soft lips were dancing across his neck and jaw, leaving him unconsciously digging his nails into his thighs and leaning back against the captain’s broad chest. That wasn’t according to the plan.

Chiding himself with a low groan, he turned around and gently pushed the captain down, straddling him carefully. If Minghao got hard now, his hopes of escaping and finding another oblivious rich person to scam would fly out the open window.

He knew the flickering candlelight was burning out, so he counted on the shadows to hide his face. The captain propped himself up with one elbow and Minghao leaned over to kiss him, a hand placed on his chest to ensure some distance.

He had gone through the same motions several times before. It was surprising how many men of wealth and power let down their guard around a woman, especially in bed, in the room they felt was the safest. He supposed pirate captains were no different.

When he had been left alone in the captain’s quarters, Minghao had searched for a weapon, but he came up empty. No rope long enough to tie him up. No blade to threaten him with. Not even a bottle of rum to knock him out with. Just some books and navigation tools.

He had cursed and decided upon the captain’s sword. A bit unwieldy, but it’d have to do.

Pushing the captain back down again, Minghao pressed a kiss to the side of his jaw, wig hiding his arm from the captain’s view. Slowly unsheathing the sword, he moved to kiss the captain on the lips. He felt a hand at his hip and leaned into the warmth. This one was better than most of Minghao’s other conquests. In fact, he might spare him the cut throat; he’d be loath to see the captain’s pale skin dirtied with blood, those high cheekbones bruised, and that smoldering gaze doused- Suddenly, the captain’s hand reached down too far and Minghao grabbed it with his own, moving their entwined hands to the side.

A glint flashed across the captain’s eyes. Minghao blinked. A tingle ran over his skin and he could hear his heartbeat pounding in his chest. That bastard. There was no way he knew, no way. Tensing slightly, he kissed back harder, urging the captain along.

When Minghao saw the other’s eyes close with a soft sigh, he relaxed. Carefully lifting the sword up, he broke the kiss and sat up, the point of the sword right above the captain’s neck. “Don’t move.” He grinned wide, the familiar feeling of exhilaration pumping through him.

“Or what? You kill me?” Minghao frowned. He couldn’t see the captain's face in the dark but he could hear the smirk in that voice and he didn’t like it.

“Shut up or I will.”

The captain started laughing.

“I said shut-”

Minghao gasped as his back hit the floor, knocking the wind out of his lungs for a good three seconds. Their positions had reversed, he realized, the sword tip now at his throat. “Fuck you,” he spit out.

“And so she reveals herself.” The captain drawled, “A lady shouldn’t know such vulgar language.” His voice had a sing-song quality and Minghao wanted to punch him in the face, screw it if the blood would mar his skin.

The sword point pressed against his neck and Minghao held his breath, closing his eyes to await the inevitable.

But it never came. A loud thunk sounded off to the side and Minghao opened his eyes tentatively. He was still alive and he wasn’t bleeding. In fact, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously, that thunk had sounded like-

“It’s wood.” The captain got up and clambered around to search for his shirt, a hearty laugh filling the room. “The sword is made of wood. Couldn’t have cut me even if you tried.”

Minghao sat up with a grimace and string of swear words, carefully adjusting his wig and dress. “Why wood?”

“A friend once told me that if I couldn’t beat him in a sword fight, I was better off not having a sword at all.” The captain shrugged, clicking the end of an anklet chain that he'd apparently kept hidden to his desk and motioning for Minghao to stick out his leg.

He complied, gritting his teeth. “Now what?”

“You stay here.” Minghao winced as a gust of air hit him from the opened door. “I’ll be back. With a real sword if I need it.”

He waited in silence until the door closed shut. Then, he grabbed the nearest book and threw it at the door, hard. “Fuck him,” Minghao grumbled under his breath, pulling at the chain, testing its strength. There were some instruments on the desk meant for navigation. He grabbed one and tried to tinker with the chain. When that didn’t work, he grabbed another. In all the years Minghao had been lying, pickpocketing, and otherwise swindling, he had always come out on top, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to lose now.

~

On the other side of the door, Jun had his hand clenched in a fist over his heart, as if willing the quick ba-thump, ba-thump to slow back down.

It was useless. He could still feel those phantom fingers on his skin and the hard wooden point against his neck, the tingling electricity that had gripped him then and even now refused to let go.

He knew wasn’t going to go get a real sword from Woozi or any of the pirates in his crew. Hell, he couldn’t bring himself to leave his place by the door. It was as if fate had handed him the keys to being a decent pirate captain and Jun had taken one look before throwing them overboard. He knew what pirates were supposed to think about pretty girls, how they were supposed to act, and what they should  _ want _ to do.

But the way his heart was racing, would a pirate have any right to feel this way?


	6. Making a Deal 101

“Come on, come on.” Minghao pushed at the anklet chaining him to the desk with vigor. His fingers were slippery with oil and he spread it liberally near his heel. Glancing up quickly to make sure the captain was still outside talking to the first mate, he went back to trying to shove the chain off his foot.

Ignoring the blossoming bruise on his pale skin, he pointed his toes and shoved, almost getting the anklet past his heel. “Yes, yes. Come on, please-”

It wouldn’t budge further. Minghao sat back against the bedframe with a loud thunk. “Goddamnit.”

He was about to start massaging the sore skin when the doors slammed open. “Not the oil, too!” The captain ran to his desk as if meaning to inventory his possessions before turning to his first mate in despair. “That’s the oil I used for light at night. Before that was my navigation instruments. And before that was my chair! My  _ chair _ , Jihoon!”

“You forgot the feather pen, too.” Minghao grinned at the captain and his shocked first mate.

With a groan, the captain cleaned up what was left of the oil. “Why is it so expensive to keep you here?”

“What did you expect?”

“Feisty. Strong.” The captain shrugged. “ _ Not _ destructive.”

The first mate’s facial features were unreadable. “She’s been pampered before. Just throw her down in the hold and you won’t have to deal with any more complaining.”

Minghao’s eyes narrowed. They still thought he was the daughter of some rich guy. Well, that would work well for him. No way in hell was he going down to the hold where there would be dirty pirates, no beds, and an exponentially smaller chance of stealing the pirates’ loot and escaping. No, sir. “I have standards for my living arrangements. My father won’t be happy to hear that you left me to sleep on the cold floor or that you serve half-cooked food, let alone that you abandoned me in the hold.” He paused a second to revel in the frustration on the captain’s face. “Oh, and I have a  _ very _ sensitive stomach. So if I get sick here, you can say goodbye to any ransom money.”

“Well, I can’t very well have you sleep with me, now can I? Unless you think I’m naive enough to think you won’t try to kill me again.”

“Again? As in something already happened?” The first mate sighed and patted the captain on the back before heading out the door. “I told you, Jun. I told you.”

Jihoon and Jun. Minghao made a mental note to remember their names. The captain, Jun, simply waved as the door slammed shut before settling down on his bed next to Minghao. “So what would you have me do?”

“Taste-test my food. Sleep on the floor. Let me talk to my friends. Let me go outside from time to time. Unchain me.” Minghao studied the expression on Jun’s face. He’d gone overboard with the demands in hope of getting more than he really needed. He fully expected Jun to unhappily agree with the first three.

But the captain smirked. “Only the food.”

Minghao pictured punching the confidence off his face. Two could play this game. He faked a quivering lip and let his voice waver. “But it’s so dark in here. And it’s lonely without anyone else. Please?”

“You’re the one who used my oil.” Jun stared at him pointedly.

“Wouldn’t have if you didn’t chain me up.” Minghao retorted.

Something hard flashed in Jun’s eyes and Minghao almost flinched, but it was quickly replaced by some other unfathomable emotion. “Fine. I’ll taste-test your food and sleep on the floor. But the chain stays.”

Suddenly, Minghao didn’t feel like bargaining for the other two requests. He climbed into the bed silently as Jun got up. “Do you need anything else for the bed? I can get blankets or something.”

Minghao shook his head no and laid down. The look in the captain’s eyes as he got up to make room on the bed and the way it made his chest feel slightly uncomfortable were unexplainable. He pushed it aside. 

It was time to focus on the concrete. Three days until they docked at port again, if he had heard correctly when he was eavesdropping on the first mate. He was sure he’d escape this time -he had a plan. Well, he snuck a glance at the captain now sitting on a makeshift chair at his desk and brought a hand to cover his eyes, he had multiple plans but none of them ever accounted for his captor being anything other than an arrogant, immoral prick. Minghao wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

 

~

 

“We couldn’t get to Coups. Pretty sure the first mate is watching us.”

Jeonghan nodded as he passed a bowl of soap suds to Vernon who passed it to Seungkwan. “Woozi doesn’t come in here to the kitchen, don’t worry. Just tell me whatever it is you want Coups to know and I’ll tell ‘im.”

Seungkwan eyed him suspiciously. “How do we know we can trust you?”

Jeonghan passed over a spoon to be scrubbed. “Who else are you going to trust? The pirate with a hook for a hand? Think about it.”

Vernon passed it back, scrubbed clean. “What Seungkwan meant is more like what do you want out of this?’

“Gold,” Jeonghan replied easily. “You get your lady set free and I get repaid.”

“The lady doesn’t have anything on her.” Seungkwan frowned.

“Tsk tsk.” Jeonghan looked at the slightly wet bowl and handed it back. “But she has access to it, no?”

Seungkwan was about to speak but Vernon elbowed him. “Uh, yes. If we free her.”

Jeonghan grinned at the both of them. “Then that’s that. I’ll tell Coups.”

Seungkwan and Vernon looked over at each other. It was risky, trusting Jeonghan, a cook with actual pirate-like tendencies. Under the keen eye of the first mate no less. And the money that Minghao didn’t have -it was their best bet but neither of them was sure if they made the right decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Sorry this got posted so late. I've also been working on a Junhao fic for an omegaverse request that'll be up within a day or two if you like that au :)
> 
> Castor


	7. What Makes a Pirate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies, 
> 
> So sorry this chapter is late. I rewrote it twice because I wanted to get it the way I pictured before putting it up ^_^ Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter.
> 
> Castor

“Why are you being nice?” Minghao demanded.

They had had this argument multiple times. Jun raised an eyebrow at him from the floor. It was the day before they would go to port again, this time to trade spices for what everyone wanted - _gold_. “I was not aware that kidnapping ladies counted as being nice.”

Minghao sat up and stared Jun down. “You’re a pirate.” In the past few days, Jun had dutifully followed up on his promise to taste-test Minghao’s food and relinquish his bed. He even tried to feed Minghao once or twice, never offended or even deterred when Minghao threatened to bite his hand off. If Minghao had known that all this would have happened, he wouldn’t have asked for anything to begin with. He jangled the chain around his ankle for emphasis. Sitting in the captain’s bed with all of the instruments on Jun’s desk and clothes strewn around the room within arm’s reach, the chain was his reminder that yes, he was being held captive on a pirate ship and not merely lodging as a lady in the passenger boat from before.

“Ah, yes.” Jun got up as well, stretching out his arms before deftly picking up his hat from the ground. “Unless you would rather sleep on the ground, just stay there until I come back. Pirate duty calls.”

Minghao pretended to tip a hat as Jun walked out the door, “Aye, aye, captain.” Then he swung his legs off the bed and went searching for tools to aid in his escape. He had already turned the place upside down more than once, but he was determined to keep going. Crawling around under every desk and peering on top of each shelf, he froze when he heard voices outside.

“Can’t wait to get all that gold, ‘eh?”

“Just wait. Let’s go and see ‘em strumpets from before!”

Minghao winced as the loud laughter faded with the footsteps. Now those were real pirates. Aggressive, unhygienic, immoral with a burning desire for gold, rum, and women. Minghao remembered when he’d asked Jun what he would do with all the gold.

The captain had shrugged, “Give it to Woozi for safe-keeping?”

“Woozi?”

“My first mate. Then he could invest it, I guess?”

Minghao had stared at him incredulously, fingers reaching down to grip at the chains and remind him of the pirate-y nature of his situation. “You, as a pirate, don’t want to just go and spend it on rum and women?”

The other man paused. He seemed to be weighing his options in his head. Typical pirate answers or atypical pirate answer?  “Not really.”

Jun wasn’t a typical pirate. Minghao didn’t like that. He pictured Jun in his mind, with the captain’s confident smirk and warm eyes, his careless sprawl when he slept on the floor. Then Minghao pictured the pirates outside, with their rum-filled minds and leering grins, hands eager to pull out a sword. It made him regret what he was about to do next.

 

~

 

Finally, the night came. Now sitting in the makeshift chair, Minghao could hear insults and orders shouted across the deck outside. Inside the captain’s quarters, Jun was checking that the chain was secure.

His hands ghosted over Minghao’s ankle as he tugged at the chain before moving down along the links to make sure none were damaged. Jun was careful not to hurt him, making sure to cover Minghao’s skin with his own hand before moving the chain. Minghao watched him in silence, telling himself to look away even though his gaze kept meandering back to the captain. It wouldn’t do well for him to remember any kindness after he had followed through on his plan for tonight.

Arriving at the table end, Jun gave it one last pull before getting up. Standing still for a second or two, he looked back at Minghao once before putting on his hat. “I’m sorry.”

Minghao searched his face. “What for?”

“Leaving you chained up.”

There was a pain in Jun’s eyes. Minghao followed it down to the frown on his lips. The air seemed to be heavy with words unsaid or just humidity, Minghao couldn't tell. There was more silence and Jun cleared his throat before heading for the door. Minghao wondered if he could follow through on his plan for tonight.

“You know I’d run away if you unchained me.”

Jun stopped in the middle of the doorway. He didn’t turn around. For some reason, Minghao found himself continuing softly, “So why do you look so sad?”

The door closed behind the captain.

 

~

 

“Get her to port! Heave ho, you useless grump. Use those arms for something!” Jihoon watched Jun out of the corner of his eye. He really couldn’t talk like a pirate. “Useless grump?” Now that was just sad.

But Jihoon also worried about a bit more than just Jun’s pirate vocabulary. The captain had been noticeably quieter after that last time they went to port. He imagined it had something to do with the lady trying to kill Jun. Probably traumatized.

Noting that Jun hadn’t even mentioned Hamlet or his woes on leaving this time, Jihoon judged it was better this way. He couldn’t let the captain isolate himself from the crew after being seduced by a girl -or a guy, he wasn’t too sure. There had been rumors of mutiny brewing up until they finally captured the passenger ship and Jihoon was sure they would bubble back to the surface given the chance.

As the crew disembarked the ship, he made sure to warn the new recruits about staying in sight before heading to the front. Jun would close out the rear-

“Hey, you.” Jihoon growled at the one named Vernon. “Keep your place.”

“Sorry,” he apologized quickly and snapped back into the crowd. Jihoon narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong.

 

~

 

Jun watched the crew carefully. Something didn’t feel right. He had left the ship without so much as a “I hope you get syphilis,” or “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? It could be better than last time,” from his prisoner. Instead, when Jun had apologized for being unable to take off the chains for obvious reasons, the other had just looked at him with those  _eyes_ and asked that question.

He scanned each pirate again. Hooks here and there, some eye patches, bags of spices, nothing unusual. Everyone was normal. Everything was normal. Jun tapped at his side in frustration. Jihoon was leading the front, he was in the back, everyone else was-

Hi heartbeat quickened. Counting again to make sure he was right, Jun felt the nagging feeling in his gut turn into a heavy stone. He spun on his heels, yelling to Jihoon. “Woozi! You’re in charge. I need to go back, someone’s not here!”

 

~

 

Jihoon’s eyes widened. Someone was still on the ship with the lady. Fighting his inner urge to run back with Jun, Jihoon grit his teeth and followed his captain’s commands. “Fuck.”

Behind him, he heard barely constrained whispering. “Someone’s still there? Vernon, what about-”

“Shh, it’ll be fine, Boo. The captain went back, right? He’s not going to give up that ransom money so easily. He’s a pirate, stick with the plan.”

The plan? Jihoon frowned and slowed his stride.

“Couldn’t we just ask?”

“Boo, you know we can’t just-”

He turned around to glare at the two. “Can’t what?”

Seungkwan piped up despite a sigh from Vernon, “Can we go back, please? The lady-”

“Will be fine.” Jihoon stared at the two suspiciously. Trying to leave just when most of the crew was at port? He wasn’t going to get tricked that easily. “Come here. Now.” Jihoon jerked his chin in front of him. “Walk over there and don’t even think of running off.”

As he turned the next corner, mind flitting between worry about what was going on at the ship and suspicion towards the two in front of him, he failed to notice the subtle thumbs up Vernon gave Jeonghan behind them. The first step to their plan was a success.

 

~

 

Jun sprinted down the dock. He thought he had made it clear no one was to even think about getting within arm’s distance of the lady. Apparently not.

Skidding to a stop at one of the ropes anchoring the ship, he listened carefully for the missing pirate before grabbing the rope and pulling himself up. He needed to hurry. Flipping over the side rail to land softly on the deck, he crept up the stairs toward his quarters. He could hear voices coming from inside.

“This isn’t what we agreed on. We had a deal! You’re supposed to get me out of here- Hey!”

“‘Yer, but it was all general-like, and-”

A hiss. Something crashed against the door. “Get off of me, you fucker-”

Jun kicked the door open. One of his crew was practically on top of the lady, though sporting a red gash down the side of his face. “Get off her,” Jun growled, pulling out his sword.

“Or what, capt’n?” The pirate leered and Jun’s expression darkened.

“Or I chop you into pieces, you scum.”

The pirate laughed and got off the bed. “As if you could.” Jun narrowed his eyes. “You see, the strumpet ‘ere told me yer sword ain’t real. Said it was  _wooden_.” He looked at Jun expectantly, as if expecting the captain to surrender. Out of the side of his eye, Jun saw that the pirate had tied the lady’s feet together. The situation was quite clear: the lady tried to seduce one of his crew with gold and the like in exchange for her freedom, but hadn’t expected him to want any advance payment. He chuckled, low and humourless as he stepped forward slowly, grip tightening around the sword hilt, “So what if it’s made of wood? Doesn’t mean I can’t do anything with it.”

The pirate barely had time to swing up the chair to block when Jun swung his sword down hard against it. The chair splintered and the pirate spun to the side, pulling out his own sword. He lunged.

 

~

 

Minghao cursed his own stupidity for landing him in this mess. Frantically shoving at his restraints, he shifted backwards when a sword came too near.

The two pirates were going head to head. Minghao wasn’t sure who he wanted to win. The other pirate was his ticket to escaping but he’d also tried to- Minghao shuddered at the memory and forced himself to look up. Jun somehow managed to parry a swing with his sword before jumping backwards and throwing the instruments on his desk at the other pirate. The pirate leaped forward and the swordfight continued. While Jun was agile and much more comfortable with his sword, the other pirate had the advantage of real metal. The captain was holding up but his sword wasn’t. With each strike, a dent -or worse, a crack- appeared in the wood. Minghao bit his lip as he hurriedly yanked at the rope. Looking down at the chains and unchafed skin beneath, he suddenly knew which side he was on.

“Your swing is too large!” Minghao wanted to yell at Jun, but he couldn’t let the other pirate know. Heart pounding, he watched in horror as Jun made the same swing, leaving himself wide open. And again. And then the other pirate saw his chance and stepped forward.

Minghao gasped.

But it wasn’t Jun who tripped and fell to the floor clutching his chest. “That’s unfair,” the other pirate croaked, blood staining his shirt around a protruding knife. “You cheated.”

Jun reached down to pull the knife out before tossing it onto his table with a thunk. His back to Minghao, it was impossible to tell what expression he was making.

“It’s not cheating. We’re pirates. What type of pirate is ever really unarmed?”

 

~

 

By the time the candle went out in Jun’s quarters, the pirate had been dragged off the ship by Jihoon and left at port. Jun had carefully removed the rope binding Minghao’s ankles as well as the chains but he’d still locked the door.

The same heavy silence had settled over the two as they respectively took their places in bed and on the floor. To be honest, Minghao didn’t know what to say. His plan for escape and easy wealth had been ruined and it was technically the captain’s fault. But-

“You could say thank you, y’know,” Jun called out from the floor.

Minghao bit his lip, “Thank you.” They lapsed back into silence until Minghao rolled over to face Jun. “I really would sleep with you if you promised to free me the day after.”

The captain remained silent and unmoving, only reaching out his palm as if waiting for Minghao to give him something. Minghao grumbled but handed over Jun’s knife. He didn’t know when the other man had noticed it was no longer on the desk. Sighing deeply, he voiced his questions toward the ceiling, “I don’t get it. You don’t want to sleep with me and you haven’t asked for ransom money. Why are you still keeping me here? Why did you help me?”

“Can’t say.” The captain paused, again, as if choosing his words carefully. “But I don’t want the money and I won’t allow harm to come to you, be it from me or anyone else.”

“And you’re sure you’re a pirate?” The question was on the tip of Minghao’s tongue but he bit it back. There was no use in asking. He didn't want to hear the answer anymore.


	8. His Eyes/His Hands

The very next day, Minghao was barely awake when Jihoon came in and hurriedly pulled Jun outside for ‘a talk.’

It was early in the morning, even for Jihoon, who routinely got up before the sun rose. But something had kept him up the night before, after dumping the ex-crewmate at some brothel, still bleeding. It was a strong gut feeling, one that told him that he could be headed into a lot more trouble and very soon. 

It had everything to do with the look in Jun’s eyes that night. When the crew had finally returned to the ship, Jihoon had rushed to the front to find Jun waiting for him, the other pirate on his knees, arms tied behind him. The doors to the captain’s quarters were still open and Jihoon could see the prisoner inside. Judging by the various items on the floor, he had a pretty good grasp of the fight that took place.

Jun must have fought dirty, that was the only explanation for the knife. But it shouldn’t have bothered the captain as much as it did. Jihoon personally admired Jun for his tactics and refusal to engage in traditional sword fighting that would disadvantage him -that was the only way Jihoon ever beat him after all. But that night, the fire in Jun’s eyes had changed. He was still furious, Jihoon could tell from the sharpness of his actions, but he also looked tired.

He still looked tired. Glare softening as Jihoon looked over Jun’s tousled hair and eye bags, the first mate still frowned as he said, “Look, Jun. That first time at port could’ve been a mistake. But last night? You stabbed a member of our crew for that lady or man or whoever.” Jun made a face like he was about to protest but Jihoon scowled back at him. “He was scum, I get that. But don’t you think you’re going too far for some prisoner?”

A shrug and a tired yawn. “What else was I supposed to do? Let him just take off with my prisoner?”

Jihoon groaned. Why was it so hard to explain? “Just- Jun. Please tell me you’re not actually falling for her or him.” Please tell me she isn’t the reason for this, whatever this is.

Jun bit his lip. Jihoon’s eyes widened. “Jun-”

“I don’t know, okay?” Jun’s expression looked so pained that Jihoon furrowed his brows in concern. “It’s just…those _eyes_ and-”

“Jun.”

The captain straightened up. “I can take care of myself, Jihoon. Just help me control the crew.”

Jihoon groaned but he stood back as Jun turned to his quarters again. “Easier said than done, captain.”

“I know, Jihoon. Thank you.”

The door closed behind Jun and Jihoon straightened his belt with a sigh, mentally preparing himself to wake up the rest of the crew. “I didn’t mean the crew, you idiot.”

 

~

 

Yet true to his word, Jun distanced himself from the lady. They stopped talking except for the occasional attempt to escape or explanation that ‘no, your bodyguards can’t come visit you.’ Whenever those piercing eyes met his own, Jun would simply look away, not wanting to offer any explanation. The next two nights were full of the same heavy silence as well. Jun would settle down on the floor. The lady would get into bed. Eventually, the candlelight flickered out.

What Jun never noticed was that Minghao stayed awake even in the dark of night, his mind refusing to let him sleep. Eyes tracing each item on the captain’s desk, his gaze always returned to watch the sleeping figure on the floor. Sometimes, Minghao wondered if he should just pickpocket the knife and slit the captain’s throat. The glint of metal on the captain’s cape was really tempting, but Minghao could never envision anything past his knife on Jun’s neck. And the pain in his eyes.

He’d always frown when he got there, an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. He had never let his emotions get in the way of escaping before. “ _But he saved you_ ,” a voice whispered in his mind. Minghao didn’t like that voice much. But when the voice directed him to look back at the captain, he listened.

Sometimes, Minghao simply watched as Jun’s chest rose and fell. He traced Jun’s awkward sprawl with his gaze. He followed the barely there moonlight glimmer in the captain’s tousled raven hair. He watched as the captain’s hands tensed and untensed, and remembered those hands on his skin. That was usually when he rolled over and forced his mind to go blank, reminding himself that Vernon and Seungkwan were counting on him to escape, and uselessly waiting for sleep to erase his thoughts for him.

 

~

 

During the day, Jun spent his time with the crew instead of with the lady. In the mornings, he set the heading and joked around with the men at mast. At lunches, he sat with the largest group. During the afternoons, he and Jihoon gave orders on deck.

“Hey you, there better be something in that cannon!”

“Yes, captain!”

“And you! Scrub that like your life depends on it.”

Another pirate joined in, “‘Cuz it might!”

As the crew burst out into uproarious laughter, Jun gave a mock tip of his hat before weaving through the crowd to get back to the wheel. There, looking out over the crew on dock and the wide expanse of open sea, he was reminded of why he took up sailing in the first place. The wind dancing through his hair, the captain’s hat sitting proudly on his head, he almost had it all.

The locked doors to his quarters burned in the back of his mind. He pushed it aside. Seeing Jihoon eyeing him from below, he gave his first mate the signature smirk. He got back an unimpressed frown; it was Jihoon’s way of smiling.

In the afternoons and evenings, the crew would tell stories of their time at port, of how they spent their money. Mostly, there were one-sided attractions for strumpets and brawls at the taverns. As they bragged and boasted, Jun listened carefully. If he wanted to be a pirate captain, he really ought to be a respectable pirate first.

One night, one enthusiastic pirate had everyone else lean in as he told his secret, “Listen up, I got the best prize of ‘em all. Lookit here.”

With a flourish, he pulled out two full bottles of rum. The excitement was immediate. Some were shouting for the rum, others were pushing their way to the front to bean the pirate over the head and take it for themselves. Rather, they had to bean whoever held the rum, as the first pirate had already been knocked out.

Grabbing a bottle out of loosened fingers, Jun raised his voice. “Sit down! We’re all gonna share, got it?”

“Aye, listen to the captain.”

“Hear, hear.”

“Let’s share, aye?”

With some grumbling, the rum was poured into rusted goblets, wooden bowls, a coconut shell or two, and even someone’s hook. In the end, only Jun hadn’t had a sip of the rum.

“Hey, let the captain drink, too!”

“Aye, let the captain drink!”

“Aye, capt’n, ‘ere you go.” Jun eyed the coconut shell with raised eyebrows. It sure didn’t smell appealing but- he saw Jihoon looking over from a corner. If he wanted to be a pirate, he’d have to act like one, goddamnit. Jun closed his eyes and tilted his head back, downing it in one gulp.

 

~

 

Minghao had been ignoring the ruckus in the mess hall below when the doors suddenly swung open. In came someone’s foot. Then an arm.

“For fuck’s sake. Fucking lightweight.” It was the first mate, Jihoon. As he took another labored step forward, Minghao saw that he was dragging Jun behind him. “Hey, you.”

Minghao looked back at Jihoon. He was panting heavily, “Help me lay this dumbass down, will you?”

“Why should I?”

The first mate glared. Jun was mumbling something incoherent, his eyes opening briefly before closing again.

“Fine.” Tentatively getting up, Minghao slipped Jun’s left arm around his shoulders so he supported half the weight. He scrunched his nose -he could still smell the alcohol on Jun’s breath.

Quickly dragging Jun’s body to the middle of the room, the two let him fall to the floor with a thump. Wiping at the sweat on his brow with a huff, Jihoon finally looked up at Minghao with another glare. Minghao glared back, daring the first mate to look away. Their staring contest lasted another few minutes.

“Don’t get what’s so special.”

“Excuse me?”

Jihoon wiped his hands at his sides before heading for the door. “Nothing. Don’t let him throw up on the maps.”

And then the doors swung shut, leaving Minghao sitting on the bed confused with a drunk captain at his feet. “Jihoon? Jihoonie- where’s Jihoonie?”

Minghao rolled his eyes as Jun sat up, the pout on his face making him look almost childish. The captain was an emotional drunk. Wouldn’t have been Minghao’s first guess but now it was his problem. “Jihoonie just left.” Minghao tossed over his blankets in attempts to placate Jun. “You need to drink water.”

“No.”

Minghao sighed and got up. Passing the bundle of blankets that Jun had cocooned himself in, he grabbed the water pouch on the desk. “You’re drunk.”

An unhappy grumble came from the blankets. “I hate rum.”

“You’re still drunk. Take this.” He nudged the blankets with the pouch.

“Don’t want to. Pirates like rum.”

Minghao raised an eyebrow. “You’re a pirate.”

Silence.

“Come on. Drink the water. It’ll help.”

“No.”

There had been a tremor in the captain’s voice. Minghao frowned and settled down on the ground next to the pile of blankets. Quietly placing the pouch to the side, he carefully unraveled the top layer of blankets to reveal the captain’s face. “You’re crying.” His frown deepened. “What’s wrong?”

A tear slipped down Jun’s cheek and Minghao caught the captain’s hand before he could angrily wipe it away. “I just- look. This is all my fault. Why did I even want to be a pirate in the first place? All I wanted-” A hiccup. “I just wanted to sail. I hate rum.”

Minghao unconsciously smoothed his thumb over Jun’s cheek. “Hating rum doesn’t make you a shitty pirate-”

Jun glared before his gaze was watered down with more tears. “Yes, it does. I captured your ship by accident, I can’t drink hard liquor -hell, I can’t drink any liquor. My crew wants to mutiny and I can’t even keep my prisoner safe… from myself.”

Minghao leaned in as Jun’s voice turned into a whisper. He wasn’t sure he heard those last two words correctly. “What do you mean?”

“It’s all my fault.” For once, the fire was gone from Jun’s eyes, leaving them slightly hollow. “I stabbed that guy. He was scum, but I stabbed him. And I would do it again, because you were in danger but also because I was mad. At both of you.” The captain’s gaze lowered and Minghao wanted to slap the smirk back into him. But he waited. He was still curious what Jun meant. “I hated that you tried to seduce someone else.” Jealousy? “I hated it but it was also my fault. If I hadn’t kidnapped you, if I hadn’t chained you up-”

“Is that it?” Jun looked up at the edge in Minghao’s voice. “That’s why you’ve been ignoring me? You think leaving me alone could fix things?”

“What else could I do?” Jun tried to look down again but Minghao grabbed him by the chin and made him look back up.

“Stop being so self-pitying for starters.” Minghao glared at him. “What happened to the cocky pirate that tried to sleep with me, huh? What about the captain who never lets me touch his hat? Oh, and that guy who fucking always knows when I stole his knife. And don’t forget the man who saved me. You can’t just steal them from me, goddamnit.”

He hauled off the blankets until they were sitting knee to knee. “And do you really think any shitty pirate could be the captain? For fuck’s sake, what sort of pirate wouldn’t have chained up their prisoner? And don’t say yourself because you’d be long dead if you didn’t. And I chose to seduce that guy. _My_ choice. Nothing to do with you, so stop blaming yourself.” Minghao stopped to catch his breath. Somehow, he had ended up barely three inches from Jun’s face, a finger jabbing at the captain’s chest. “And stop ignoring me. I literally spent days wondering why you just disappeared during the day and then you come back at night and don’t say a word.”

Jun just stared back at him as if seeing Minghao in a new light. There was a flicker in his eyes, a small ember of the fire Minghao was used to, but it was something. He bit his lip, suddenly aware that he was practically in Jun’s lap. “Just- screw rum, you’re not dead. You’re still a pirate. And a captain. I’m perfectly safe and nothing is your fault, got it?”

After a few seconds, Jun nodded slowly, “I’m not dead.”

Minghao sighed, the exasperation evident on his features along with his relief. “That’s the one thing you got from all that?”

The captain attempted a half smirk as he clumsily pulled Minghao into his arms. His eyelids were droopy and his movement were sluggish. Minghao could still smell the rum but he let the captain wrap his arms around him and lean his head against Minghao’s shoulder. “Thought I was in heaven, y’know. With a very angry angel.”

Minghao rolled his eyes, “You still need to drink water.” But he didn’t reach for the water pouch off to the side. Instead, he carefully let his hand sneak up to smooth Jun’s hair. The captain hummed and closed his eyes.

That night, when the candlelight flickered out, the pair were still resting in each other’s embrace. The tears had dried on Jun’s face and Minghao had finally closed his eyes. Warm hands pressed to the small of his back, he had taken one last glance at the peaceful expression on Jun's face and finally let sleep take him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> I apologize again for the late chapter. Since these seem to be getting longer, I've decided to give myself some more time than usual, so please expect updates on Tuesdays and Fridays from now on :) Hope you enjoy


	9. A Sky Full of Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Giving myself more time to write somehow translates to longer chapters .-. I hope you enjoy this newest one and I edited the beginning of the previous to reveal some of Woozi's thoughts on all of this :)
> 
> Castor

When morning came, it was Jun who woke up first. Groggily rubbing his eyes, his arm bumped into someone’s head resting against his chest and Jun suddenly realized that a certain prisoner he’d been trying to avoid was sleeping soundly in his arms. Tentatively stretching out one arm then the other, he groaned at the soreness of his muscles. He felt like vomiting.

He had a hangover. He definitely had a hangover. Hazy memories were starting to play too loudly in his head; there was that rum, and then someone carrying him, and then...just warmth. Jun groaned. He didn’t remember, everything was too blurry. Eyes still barely open, Jun tried to pick the lady up but only succeeded in whacking her shoulder. Grunting unhappily, he pushed her off his lap as gently as possible and dragged himself to the doors. Outside, he could hear people yelling.

Jun frowned. The voices were getting louder and it hurt his head. In his disoriented state, he could barely make out a weird chunk of brown that vaguely resembled the deck and too many patches of light rippling at the sides. He thought the black blob near the front was a person but he couldn’t be sure. As details solidified, a familiar face took up most of his vision. It was speaking to him but Jun couldn’t tell what it was saying.

The face frowned and suddenly all the bright lights and blobs went away. Jun was back in his quarters and the doors had been closed. In the back of his mind, he remembered the face saying something important before closing the doors but he couldn’t make out what. It could wait. Jun dragged himself back to where the lady was, and before he knew it, he was lying on the ground fast asleep.

 

~

 

By the time Jun woke up again, the sun was past halfway in the sky and Minghao had been awake for quite a while. Sitting at the desk, he noticed the captain trying to get up from the floor, propped up with his elbows and head drooping down as if wanting to go back to sleep. A groan. The captain managed to sit up, rubbing at his temples. “Everything hurts,” Jun complained, his voice scratchy.

Minghao tossed the water pouch to him, “I tried to make you drink water.”

“You should have poured it down my throat.” But Jun caught the pouch this time and greedily gulped down the contents, shaking out the last few drops when it was empty. “So, I’m not dead. What happened?”

" _I’m not dead_." Minghao narrowed his eyes at the familiar phrasing, “How much do you remember?”

The captain shrugged, trying to get to his feet before flopping back down. “Not much. There’s the rum then someone carrying me, probably Woozi-”

“Jihoonie.”

“What?”

“You called him Jihoonie.”

“Oh god. To his face?” If the horror on Jun’s face was any indicator, Minghao was pretty sure he was never going to use that nickname. Not if he wanted to live another day. He shook his head and Jun brought a hand to his heart. “Thank the stars.” The captain continued, “As I was saying, and then-” he paused. There was some color in his cheeks, but from the hangover or from his memories, Minghao couldn’t tell. The heat in his own cheeks were from the memories at least. He forced it down. They hadn’t done anything really. He shouldn’t feel like this.

“I don’t really remember, but my knife was on me and we were sleeping together. Not  _sleeping_ together, but sleeping together.” Minghao raised an eyebrow. “And I’m not dead, no stab wounds, no slit throat. So what happened?”

Minghao sighed, “First, move to the bed. They left your food outside and not eating is just going to make everything worse.”

“Fine.” Jun grumbled, clambering over onto the soft mattress. Apparently, alcohol also made men of power more docile. Minghao made sure to file that away in his head as he got up to sit by Jun’s side. He smiled slightly at how the captain seemed to sink into the pillows, hand reaching out instinctively to smooth out Jun’s hair but quickly withdrawing when Jun looked at him curiously.

Instead, he reached for the bowl of chicken soup. “Say ah. It’s not poisoned, I promise.” Jun looked at him skeptically and Minghao rolled his eyes, swallowing a large spoonful before bringing another to the captain’s lips. “Look, now we both die if it’s poisoned, happy?”

Jun shrugged but ate it anyways.

“So yesterday night. You said a lot of stupid shit.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. You said you were a shitty pirate.” Jun opened his mouth to talk but Minghao glared at him, “You’re not a shitty pirate or captain, understand?” A nod. “Good.”

Minghao scooped another spoonful of soup and Jun looked up at him warily, “Is there more?”

“You also blamed yourself for my situation. Key word here is ‘my.’ _My_ situation, not yours, and-”

 

~

 

As the lady went on, Jun had to agree, most of his fears and worrying had been unfounded. But he was still curious. His knife had been very obviously tucked in his cape and he knew the lady could have taken it if she wanted. He would be dead right now if that was what she wanted. But he wasn’t dead.

Looking up into those eyes, Jun wondered if her gaze was softer than before. He watched as she scooped another spoonful and carefully blew on it before bringing it to his lips. He let his mind wander, imagining what it would be like if she had been the warmth he remembered.

He pushed the thought aside. She had finished talking. “I apologize for all of that, and I’m glad I’m not dead, but you never answered my question. Why?”

“Your first mate told me to. I don’t have a death wish, you know.” The lady shrugged, her gaze to the right.

Jun sat up slightly, “No, not why you helped me while I was drunk or why you somehow think I’m a good person despite me being a pirate and kidnapping you. Why not escape? Why didn’t you just slit my throat and jump ship?”

She stared at him as if incredulous, but he could see that she was trying not to look to either side. “I can’t swim, what do you mean jump ship? And I can’t just leave my bodyguards here, so stop talking and eat the rest of this before I do slit your throat.”

Wordlessly, Jun acquiesced, closing his eyes as she brought another spoonful to his lips. Yet he could feel his heart beating faster than usual, the quick ba-thump nudging his brain to think, to put into thoughts what he felt. The lady had lied. She could have simply held him hostage to force Jihoon to go to port and that would have ensured their escape. Sipping at the soup, Jun wondered if she’d thought of that.

 

~

 

Minghao got up to place the empty soup bowl by the door before sitting down at the desk, his back to the captain. He could feel Jun’s gaze at the back of his head but he didn’t turn around. Minghao didn’t trust his facial expression not to betray him.

To be fair, he could have forced Jun to free him at knifepoint or used him as a hostage against Jihoon. But the thought of escape hadn’t even been on his mind that night. Minghao chided himself. Next time, he would definitely escape next time. He needed to stop letting his emotions get to him.

He heard Jun getting up behind him. “I’m going to find Woozi.” A nod. “When I come back later, can I show you something?” A long pause. Then Minghao nodded his head again and the doors closed behind Jun.

Burying his face in his hands, Minghao mentally whacked himself. It shouldn’t have mattered to him that the captain finally wasn’t ignoring him. It shouldn’t have bothered him so much, the way Jun talked about himself while drunk. And it shouldn’t be making him curious, whatever it was Jun wanted to show him. On top of it all, he definitely shouldn’t be frustrated that Jun saw him as a lady. It should be good. Minghao sighed. He really needed to stop letting his emotions get to him.

 

~

 

Jun ran into Jihoon almost as soon as he went outside. His first mate was at the wheel, a worn map in his hand and sunlight warming his face. “You’re steering.” He rubbed his eyes again to check and Jihoon glared at him. “Just making sure. It’s rare to see, so what’s the occasion?”

Jihoon merely glanced at him before handing over the map and wheel. “Bad gut feeling. Wanted to make sure someone competent was at the wheel just in case.”

Jun frowned and looked at the sky. It was slightly late in the afternoon but the sun was still out, bright and smiling amongst puffs of white clouds. The sunlight was warm against his skin and Jun considered taking his cape off to bask in it. If anything, the air was a bit dry. Jun frowned, it didn’t bode well for Jihoon’s intuition and the weather to be mismatched.

“Like the calm before the storm,” said Jihoon, also looking to the sky. Jun nodded, Jihoon was always right on these sort of things. For a second, he thought he saw clouds rolling over the horizon, dark and heavy with rain, lightning, thunder, and days spent rallying the crew to toss extra weight overboard. He blinked and the image disappeared. A bad omen indeed.

“Tell me if the feeling gets worse. I’m going to stay up tonight, and you’ll be the first to hear if trouble starts brewing.” Jihoon nodded and right as he was about to slip down to below the deck, Jun called a question after him. “And Jihoon? Why did you leave me with her? She could’ve killed me.”

“You said you could take care of yourself. And you’re not dead, are you?” He disappeared below. “ _You’re not dead.”_ Jun couldn’t tell if his first mate had just given up on him or given him permission. Sighing softly, he pulled his cape around him and followed a crewmate to go check on supplies. Slowly, as the day wore on and movement on the deck subsided and tired hands found their way to hammocks below or flasks at their sides, the sun too sleepily drifted lower and lower until it seemed to sink into the horizon, yawning slightly before waving goodbye, leaving only the captain at the helm to watch it disappear. The captain and one other.

 

~

 

Minghao had been playing around with the captain’s maps as dusk started to set. It amazed him, the differing ways the world was portrayed, so grand and limitless in one cartographer’s eyes and contained yet bursting with life in another’s. Sometimes, cities were drawn or cultures depicted. Other times, the writing was all numbers, land merely cut this way and that to fit someone’s will. But the land- Minghao was astonished at the mere expanse of land and sea.

From the cramped alleys and gray covered skies where he had grown up, Minghao had never expected land past England, let alone past Europe. Hands tracing colorful sketches of sea monsters and detailed diagrams of inventions in the far East, he wondered how much of it was true, how much he could hope was true. The warm red and oranges danced their way across the worn paper as he read, filling his gaze so that the sudden darkness of a shadow startled him.

He jumped out of the chair, cursing under his breath for not noticing the doors open, “You.”

There was a smile in the captain’s eyes as he gestured for Minghao to follow him. “You can call me by name, you know. Jun, Junhui, captain, dashingly handsome pirate capt-”

“You.” Jun rolled his eyes and Minghao smirked, careful to hide the hopeful tone in his voice, “Are we going outside?”

The eyeroll turned into an eye-smile and Jun nodded, holding the door open. “I wanted to show you the stars. Sunset’s nice, too.” Breath catching slightly in his chest, Minghao looked to Jun’s eyes for a second, reading his sincerity before tentatively stepping into the light.

It was beautiful. The red and oranges were even more vibrant coloring the lower clouds as the sun sank into the horizon. One step following another, Minghao didn’t take his eyes off the line where the sunset met rippling waves, seemingly hiding flickering flames beneath their surface in the ever changing reflection, until his hands clasped the rail.

“Red clouds at morning, sailors take warning. Red clouds at night, sailor’s delight.” Jun had stepped out next to him, the cool evening breeze dancing with his cape before drifting along. “It’s an old saying, means there’ll be good weather tomorrow. Hopefully it runs true.”

The captain headed down the stairs to the deck and Minghao followed behind him, stopping every so often to glance at loose rope wrapped around a bucket or the polished wood construction. His view from the window in the captain’s quarters really didn’t do it justice. The ship was awe-inspiring from the deck, much larger than he had imagined though just as unkempt.

“She’s a beaut, ain’t she?”

Jun had turned around and Minghao couldn’t tell if  the captain was looking at him or past him. The word left Minghao’s mouth as a breathless whisper, “Yeah.” He looked to the side.

Jun smiled, turning back around again. “She’s like you. _Maria_.” It was a bit like an added afterthought, something bearing less weight than it should. Minghao didn’t hear it. There were some footsteps and then a familiar silence settled on the deck. Jun had gone to fix  something near the mast, and Minghao meandered over to the side of the ship, leaning over the rails to outline his reflection in the glimmering water. Long flowing hair and rouge-stained lips flickered in and out of focus with the waves, so that only the same piercing gaze he remembered stared back at him. He wondered which Jun saw first, those eyes or his lips and hair.

Speaking of the devil, a familiar silhouette joined Minghao’s in the water. “Thinking of jumping ship now?”

“Yes,” lied Minghao.

“I thought you couldn’t swim.” The captain’s voice was lilting, teasing as he leaned in, eyes searching Minghao for a reaction.

Minghao shifted away. “I can’t.”

“I’ll save you,” declared Jun, a confident smirk gracing his features. Minghao looked back to the water, pointedly refusing to look Jun in the eye. Now that would be a picture, the captain floundering in the waves as he tried to pull Minghao up and his dress dragged him down. He pictured slipping out of the dress, his makeup washing away to mix with the red and orange already in the water, the wig coming askew- he stopped there.

“And who will save us?”

“I believe in Jihoon.”

Minghao gave him a weird look and laughed. Jun laughed, too, and as the shimmering red faded away into a dusty orange and finally left behind only the silver moonlight atop the wave’s crests, the two headed back up to the helm.

The stars had come to life, twinkling against the darkness of the night sky. Minghao gazed up appreciatively from where they were sitting, “They’re pretty.”

Jun nodded, eyes crinkling as he pointed out constellations to Minghao, “That’s the Little Dipper. If you see the brightest star there at the end, that’s the North Star. Polaris. You can draw a line with the Big Dipper...” The captain talked on and Minghao watched him, marveled at how the stars seemed to mirror their twinkling in his eyes, traced the grin on his lip down to the animated movements of his arm, and followed his gestures up the stars shining above them and back down to the way the soft light washed over the captain’s face, dipping at curves and glinting at edges. Somewhere along the line, Jun’s voice had faded to a soft hum and Minghao had looked back up to the sky, wondering what else the captain could see that he could not.

They stayed like that for a while, gazing at the stars next to each other and gazing at each other in stolen glimpses to the side. Eventually, Jun got up and went to the wheel. Smoothing his thumb over the polished wood, a fond expression flitted across his face followed by something else, something distant. He turned slightly and Minghao could only see his back.

The captain stood tall, shoulders back and head up with his hands confidently resting at the wheel. His silhouette blurred at the edges where his cape fluttered in the wind and when he slightly pulled down his hat. Minghao watched him in silence, the gentle lapping of the waves against the wood in the background. It was his heart that betrayed him, the continuous ba-thump traitorously loud in his mind, disrupted only when Jun turned back around. “The doors are unlocked. You can go back in if you want.”

“Are you staying?”

“I have to stay. Keep watch, make sure we don’t hit an island and all.” His voice so soft, joking, but there was a heavier undercurrent to it.

Minghao tilted his head to look at Jun, “Something wrong?”

“No, nothing.”

He said that but a small cloud of worry showed in his eyes and Minghao almost told him to stop pretending. But Jun tightened his grip on the wheel ever so slightly and Minghao sighed. He pictured the first mate and the other pirates sleeping soundly in hammocks below the deck. He crooked an eyebrow at the one member of the crew still awake. “And he says he’s a shitty captain,” grumbled Minghao under his breath, scooting closer to the captain. He leaned his head against the rails to look up at Jun with a smile, the stars still twinkling in the background, “I’ll stay, too.”


	10. The Storm Pt. 1

Jihoon was right about the calm before the storm. Nothing had happened the night Jun and Minghao stayed up and the day after had been as smooth sailing as the captain predicted. It was two days later that they started to see the storm creeping in.

That morning, Jun had woken up to vivid reds and oranges bathing the room in shades ranging from rose petals to apricots to blood-oranges. When he looked out the window, he saw the same colors seeping into the hazy morning clouds. “Sailors take warning.”

Take warning he did. Carefully checking that the lady was still asleep, he slipped out of his quarters and headed down to where the crew was. Unsurprisingly, he found Jihoon already awake and delegating out tasks for the day. Some men on deck, some at the masts, some checking the inventory and cleaning the cannons. He noted with an approving nod that his first mate had separated the two new recruits. Jihoon had good foresight.

After the crew clambered to their duties with a few “mornin’, cap’n” and other various greetings, Jun gestured for Jihoon to follow him to the helm.

There, they could talk freely. “The storm. It’s coming.”

It was more of a statement of fact than a question but Jihoon nodded. The dryness in the air had gone, replaced with an unwelcome humidity, warm and wet and carrying hints of the weather brewing over the horizon. Broken pocket watches and string that had detangled from rope had been tossed overboard that morning, first mate’s orders. One of the pirates was checking the sails for rips or tears.

“We’re not going to make it to port before it hits.”

This time Jun nodded. Jihoon had thought as much. The captain was the one who set their heading and spent time looking through navigational charts and mapping their position, but Jihoon had had that gut feeling for a while, the feeling that told him a storm was coming and there was no getting out of this one. He trusted this feeling and carried out necessary precautions, hoping that it was only warning him of the weather.

“Do you still have half the spices?”

“Yes.”

“And the remaining gold?”

“Most of it is with me.” The first mate patted a pouch under his coat. “I hid the rest.”

Jun laughed, “Maybe we really should invest it. Go to the nearest port, y’know?”

“A non-pirate port, you mean?”

“I’m sure a jail cell is preferable to the storm coming.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes at Jun’s joke, “The gallows sure ain’t. You have fun up here, I’m gonna check on the boy fixing the masts.”

Jun nodded, “Be careful,” and then his first mate was gone, striding across the deck to the mast.

 

~

 

A few hours later, the wind had picked up, fighting with Jun’s cape instead of dancing as before and dragging through his hair as if wanting to blow his hat right off. At the helm, he waited as it turned into bellowing gusts that churned the waves frothy white, crashing into the hull of the ship so that the wood creaked and groaned. The sky above had clouded over, the sunlight stolen away. He could hear grumbles of thunder in the distance and smell the rain in the air. Gazing at the darkening clouds, Jun’s mouth had set in a firm line. The storm was coming.

 

~

 

Inside the captain’s quarters, Minghao paced near the window nervously.

He reminded himself of Jun’s attitude when he’d come back inside to hand Minghao some more blankets and lock the door. The captain had been confident as always, explaining that he didn’t want anything else to worry about during the storm before teasingly asking Minghao again to call him by name and leaving with a mock huff of disappointment when Minghao refused like always.

It had seemed like a regular day but Minghao knew it wasn’t. He bit his lip as raindrop after raindrop started to streak across the window, blurrying his view of the deck outside. Out of habit, a hand went to his neck, feeling for the pendant necklace under the dress. He would never pray for something again -no, it wasn’t faith that supported him in moments like this. It was something much more fragile. Hope.

Sinking down into the cocoon of blankets that Jun had brought him, Minghao wished that that would be enough.

 

~

 

Outside, Jihoon was striding through lines of crewmates hoisting ropes and calling out orders amid the rain. The pirate with the hook was trying in vain to help and Jihoon was about to assign him somewhere else, but something else caught his eye. A slacker at the ropes. It was the boy who had been helping him patch up the sails before. His hands were slipping despite his attempts. Jihoon yelled, “Put your back to it, you green-horned fishbelly! Come on, pull!”

The boy looked back at him, eyes wide and worried right before he slipped on the deck and fell, the rope flying out of his grasp. Jihoon groaned, quickly grabbing the end of the rope and shoving it at another pirate to hold. When Jun first made the call for all hands on deck, Jihoon had grabbed everything remotely bucket-shaped and dumped the various flasks, bowls, and more on the deck just in case water found its way into the hold below. Now, he thrust several of them into the arms of the boy as he got up. “Nevermind. New job. If water starts getting in, you get it back out.”

The boy mumbled a thank you and ran off. Jihoon turned back to the pirate with the hook.

 

~

 

“Anything you can throw overboard, do it!” The rain had started coming down harder, and Seungkwan could barely make out the first mate yelling at the crew members through the water droplets dripping down his hair and catching at his eyelashes.

He sneezed. Vernon had volunteered his shirt to provide some sort of makeshift cover from the rain and cold, but it had gotten drenched soon after. “You okay?” Vernon looked over and Seungkwan sneezed again. Normally, he would have liked to stare at Vernon’s shirtless torso, but in the pouring rain, all he wanted to do was look down at his feet and pretend that he wasn’t in a storm, that his hands and feet weren’t freezing off, and that there was some inch of skin on his body still dry. It didn’t work.

He grumbled a ‘fine’ and got back to tossing buckets of water overboard. Vernon frowned but did the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the first mate confronting one of the pirates.

“But ‘em pocketwatches I got. They cost gold, I can’t throw ‘em overboard!”

The first mate seemed to snarl, “Gold or your life? Choose one before I make you.” In his anger, he looked taller and more menacing. The pirate said something, looking to the side, and the first mate appeared to be satisfied with the answer because he stalked away.

But when the first mate was out of sight, Vernon saw the pirate pocket whatever he had been showing the first mate and sneak below deck. He narrowed his eyes and considered telling the first mate. Everyone else was on deck, even the cook. Blonde hair matted to the side of his face, he looked to be helping out with the buckets of water. Vernon looked to the sails. S. Coups was pulling his weight at the ropes and rallying the pirates behind him-

“Vernon?”

Vernon turned back to see Seungkwan staring at him worriedly, hair dripping so that droplets found their way to his cheeks. Vernon’s shirt, heavy with water, had long been tossed aside. “It’s nothing,” he said and went back to tossing trinkets overboard. The pirate wouldn’t be much of a problem. He snuck a glance at the captain yelling something else. No matter, it certainly wouldn’t be Vernon’s problem.

 

~

 

Jun looked over the deck from the helm. Puddles of water sloshed in his hat and boots, and his cape, shirt, and pants clung to his skin. The temperature had dropped with the onset of wind and rain, so that he shivered when an especially strong gust blew harsh drops of water against his face.

The rest of the pirates were similarly drenched. Half shirtless and half shivering at the wet cloth on their skin, they worked as if with one mind, the first mate’s voice shouting commands to follow. The ship was doing alright. No one had fallen overboard and not that many crew members had slipped on deck. He had weathered a storm or two before and they always faced the risk of capsizing or sinking, but that was not very likely at the moment. Judging by the unchanging clouds in the sky, Jun knew they were in for it for quite a while but it looked as if they would come out alright.

That was how it looked. Jihoon’s most recent command carried his voice through the air and Jun repeated it. Their eyes met. Jun could see the worry in Jihoon’s gaze, and he knew deep down, in the same intuitive way that he had always known he would be drawn to the sea, that his first mate still had the uncomfortable gut feeling, the ever growing one that told him trouble was over the horizon. But now, Jun knew it wasn’t just the storm. No, this was just the beginning.


	11. The Storm Pt. 2

From inside the captain’s quarters, a pair of eyes anxiously watched the pirates on the deck outside, fighting the rain and waves to sail through the storm. The captain and first mate switched roles at the wheel and on deck every few hours, with the first mate taking over at times to force the captain to return to his quarters for a few minutes rest. Now was one of those times.

Silently handing Jun a dry change of clothes, Minghao turned back to the window as the captain changed out of his water-logged shirt and trousers, not even bothering to wring out the water anymore before tossing both onto the ever growing pile in the corner and dragging his feet to the bed.

Minghao frowned at the squelching noises the captain’s feet made against the wet floor. The clumsy man would fall down one day, he swore, and the first mate would come in at the noise if the thunder outside didn’t hide it and Minghao would be dead meat and-

A loud “oomph” came from behind him, somewhere near the bed. “Just five minutes.”

Minghao nodded, worries flying momentarily from his head as he started counting out loud. “One, two, three, four, five, six…” He looked over to the lump of blankets on the bed, not really able to see if the shivering was the captain or just the ship rocking. It was dark now, with the storm clouds stealing away what would have been daylight and all candles on the ship snuffed out for fear they would fall with the sway of the ship in the tumultuous sea and drown most of the pirates in flames before they could jump ship to be drowned under the waves...

Something hard poked against his thumb and Minghao realized he had been clutching his pendant again. Shoving his own fatigue away for a second, he forced his eyes to focus, carefully studying the lump on the bed. Jun seemed to have settled down and Minghao relaxed. He let his gaze unfocus again, tired thoughts drifting as he idly imagined how the ship might look on fire, red-tipped flames lighting up the deck as a beacon amid the darkness of the storms before succumbing to the hazy smoke that would obscure it as it made its last stand, planks collapsing-

“Mm.” There was a drawn out exhale as the captain flipped onto his side and Minghao jumped slightly, losing his count.

He restarted at one, not caring how many times he would go back to the same “one, two, three” before Jun woke up. The first mate had warned him not to let the captain sleep any less than twenty minutes, and Minghao had replied, very slowly as if not understanding, that he wasn’t sure he could ever count to such large a number -and one thousand two hundred was _much_ too large- and that the first mate might have to excuse him if it took him too long. Say, forty minutes instead of twenty. Jihoon had looked at him for a second before grimacing. Oddly enough, Minghao felt like that was how the first mate smiled.

“Heave, ho!” He could hear that familiar voice outside yelling orders. Grudgingly tearing his gaze away from the rise and fall of the captain’s chest and pushing away the fatigue, Minghao turned to the window to search out Vernon and Seungkwan among the men on deck. He scanned over the short one yelling from the helm -that was Jihoon- and the mop of blonde hair sticking out like a sore thumb -that was the cook, Minghao had seen him once or twice. The next person he saw was the one echoing Jihoon’s commands, rallying some pirates at one of the masts -that was S. Coups, the one that Jihoon seemed to have a grudge against, judging by how his eyes narrowed when he thought no one was watching. And just before a shirtless man and his drenched companion came into view, Minghao was distracted by a moving shadow at the corner of his eye.

He squinted, pressing up against the glass for a better view. It was a pirate, he was pretty sure, but none of the crew was supposed to be below deck, so why the hell was he coming up to the deck? Seeing the man meld seamlessly into the crew on deck gave him a bad feeling and he got up, quickly walking to Jun’s bedside.

“Hey, you.” He shook the blankets where the captain’s shoulder seemed to be. “It’s been five minutes, wake up.”

 

~

 

Slowly coming to, Jun noticed someone shaking him softly at first and then harder. He was having that nice dream where he was in the embrace of something or someone warm, and he really didn’t want to get up from that. Groaning, he rolled away from the hand at his shoulder. Wen Junhui didn’t choose to be a pirate captain to have people telling him when to get up-

“Captain.”

A hand pulled him back forcefully and Jun finally opened his eyes with a frown. “What now?”

“It’s been five minutes. Stop cuddling your blankets and get up.”

Sighing deeply, he did as he was told, stretching slightly before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and landing on his feet. He felt those familiar eyes gazing at him as he wobbled slightly before finding his footing on the way to the door, so he turned back to the lady and smiled with a confidence he didn’t have, “You should rest, too.”

She nodded but he knew she wouldn’t. Stepping out of the warmth of his quarters and into the freezing rain outside, Jun knew he would see her face at the window if he looked back. He played with the idea that she was watching him, worrying about him, staying awake because of _him_ , but let it die as it should. Mentally, he cursed nature for sending a storm to interfere in his love life. She would be watching the two that had claimed to be her bodyguards, he thought, and did not look back.

 

~

 

Carefully scanning the crew from the window, Minghao checked for the fourth time that none of them were looking his way before pushing open the door just enough to peek out from there instead. Small drops of rain flew into his face and he crinkled his nose in annoyance. At the helm, the captain was steering the wheel, looking straight forward with his chin high despite the onslaught of rain and wind. Eyes trailing him from the side, Minghao mentally commanded him to keep looking forward and not turn around as he himself slipped out the door and sneaked over to the hatch signifying the stairs that led below deck.

A strand of hair slipped in front of his face and he brushed it back uneasily. Time was ticking, but he should have at least half an hour before either Jun or Jihoon went back to the captain’s quarters, time enough to resolve the uncomfortable feeling he had and get back before either of them freaked out. He pulled up the latch and entered feet first, dress, frills, and all.

With one last glance over his shoulder at the captain’s back, Minghao turned to refocus his eyes in the darkness below before closing the latch behind him.

 

~

 

On deck, Vernon had been promoted to helping with the ropes for the main mast. Somewhere during the storm, he had given up learning all the ropes and coils and just followed the directions of whoever was yelling loudest at the time. Usually it was the first mate. “Brace for starboard! I said starboard!”

Sometimes it was the captain. “I said foresail, not mainsail. Untangle that right now!”

Other times, it was the whole mass of pirates yelling together in steady rhythm, “Pull! Heave, ho, pull!” As if one cohesive group, they pulled in unison, back, forward, again.

At another rope connected to the main mast, Jeonghan was doing his fair share as well. From time to time, Vernon looked over to check on Jeonghan and Seungkwan, who was still tossing out bucketloads of water behind him. Their eyes locked once and Jeonghan attempted a shrug mid-pull. Everything else would have to wait for the storm to pass, including their plan.

He shrugged back. It was impossible to do anything else in this weather anyways.

 

~

 

Below the deck, Minghao could hear the steady chant of “heave, ho, pull!” coming down faintly from above. Having already shifted through most of the crew’s quarters, searching through dirty hammocks and looking underneath piles of who knows what, Minghao was pretty sure the lone pirate had been messing around below in the hold.

Knowing Jun, he had no prisoners down there, so Minghao was safe to keep going. Making sure he left the crew’s quarters as he found it, with some toppled bottles and shifted objects from the sway of the ship, he headed down lower.

Immediately, he gagged at the strong smell of spices mixing with the smell of seawater. How did anyone stand going down there? It reeked of the odor and the air felt wet and heavy to boot. Pinching his nose with one hand, he let the frills of his dress trail on the ground as he opened crate after crate of rations. If the pirate didn’t steal from one of his crewmates, he had to have stolen from all of them.

But the food seemed untouched. Minghao frowned, his original theory overturned. Checking again that none of the rations were out of place, he moved on to the spices.

He knew Jihoon kept some of the leftover spices and gold down here and hid the rest. Most obvious place to look would be the spice barrels in the back, so that’s where he went.

 

~

 

At the helm, Jun had been trying to get two of the main ropes untangled when he froze.

Originally, he had told the pirate with the hook to help with the buckets but the man mostly ended up spilling more water onto the deck than he dumped overboard, so Jun had him climb up to the crow’s nest and keep watch up there instead. They had gone a while without hearing a peep from him before-

“A ship, cap’n! A ship coming from the northeast!”

He froze in shock before squinting toward the clouds in the northeast. All he saw were the clouds, dark and angry. Frowning, he called out to Jihoon before yelling up at the crow’s nest, “Are you sure?”

“Aye, cap’n. Headed straight for us, too!”

That wasn't good, that wasn't good at all. Jihoon yelled something at him but the wind carried it away. He must have said something along the lines of “I'll check,” because within the minute, the first mate had hoisted himself up the mast to the crow’s best. Jun watched, the heartbeat in his chest quickening, as Jihoon turned to look to the northeast and turned back, yelling something unintelligible again and thrusting his arm to point at something Jun couldn't see. The incoming ship.

 

~

 

Gingerly brushing traces of spices off his fingertips, Minghao slumped against the barrel as he looked around the hold yet another time. He had checked the food rations, the water, the empty rum bottles, the spices, and the gold. Nothing seemed out of place, but that didn't make any sense.

As he stood there, another drop of water -or sweat- rolled down from his wig onto his neck. It was stuffy, but he couldn’t tell if that was because of the hold or his dress. Pushing himself up with a groan, he ignored how the fabric clung to his skin and took another look at the gold.

Full pouch, another full pouch. He pulled open another pouch, letting the coins inside clink around before settling. Reaching inside for a second time, he fished around for a coin and brought it to his lips, biting down with his incisors hard before wincing and placing it back in resignation. It wasn’t counterfeit gold all right.

Twisting the twine of the pouch drawstring closed, he let it fall back on the others with a thump. Had the man really not stolen anything? That didn't make sense at all with the way he had been creeping around like he shouldn't have been down there. But, Minghao realized with a gasp, everything would make sense if the pirate hadn't been stealing but hiding something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Cutting it close to midnight where I am, but I hope you liked this chapter and if you haven't seen the fancam of Junhao's performance of "My I," you're really missing out ^_^
> 
> Castor


	12. The Storm Pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> This chapter is early as a little surprise and because it's a bit shorter ^_^ Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Castor

“Forty degrees starboard! Starboard, men!”

Jihoon called down from the crow's best to Jun, “It's not working, captain! The wind is with them!”

The wind whipping through his hair, Jihoon had to hold stray bangs out of his face as he tried to make out the captain's frantic arm gestures below. Jun was refusing to give up, he realized as much, but it wasn't going to help. “You stay here,” he instructed the pirate with the hook before swinging his leg over the side to firmly step onto a rung.

Coming out of the clouds in front of them, a large galleon was making itself known. Jun had tried to avoid engaging them but Jihoon knew better. Hands slippery around the rope, he climbed down as fast as he could without slipping and breaking his neck. He was sure his gut feeling had something to do with the galleon. They needed to ready the cannons; this ship had been headed towards them from the beginning as if its captain both knew where they were and was intending on engaging them from the start. Neither was good.

Boots hit the floor with a splash and a thunk. Making his way past groups of pirates at the ropes to the helm, he shoved one or two out of his way before grabbing Jun by the elbow. “We need to get ready. Now.”

 

~

 

Minghao let the crate lid fall from his hands and clatter against the floor. Mutely staring into the crate but not believing his eyes, he vaguely heard some shouts from above, louder than before.

Half in horror and half in panic at the growing volume above him, Minghao didn't stop to grab the lid off the floor before he turned to the stairs and sprinted up.

There was no time to waste. He needed to tell the captain.

 

~

 

Jihoon’s sword was already unsheathed in his hand. The first mate growled impatiently, “We have to ready the cannons. They mean to engage us.”

Jihoon was right. Jun tracked the incoming ship as it grew larger, bearing down the waves toward them. Closing his eyes, he grit his teeth and counted to ten. The wind had been against them for the last few hours and it didn't seem like that was going to change. He opened his eyes with a grimace, “Alright then, grab half the crew.”

With a nod, Jihoon was gone, barking orders and grabbing pirates left and right off the ropes and pushing them toward the hatch to the hold. Suddenly, a flash of red appeared to stumble out of that very same hatch.

“What the hell are you doing?” Jun hissed, pulling the lady to the side, out of the way of the pirates as Jihoon directed them down below the deck. “You’re soaked. When did you even-”

She cut him off, “There’s no time. You can’t engage that ship, you have no gunpowder.”

“What?”

“Look, you don’t have time.” She glared at him, hands clenched into tight balls, “Someone in the crew went below deck and dumped most of the gunpowder and cannonballs overboard. You keep it all in large wooden chests, right? He put his loot in there instead-”

“You went down to the hold?”

“Was there a pocket watch in there?”

A frustrated groan. She ignored Jun, the gears in his head finally starting to fit together, and nodded to answer Jihoon, “That’s not important. What’s important is-”

Jihoon growled, hand tightening around the hilt of his sword, “ _Him_. I’m going to kill that asshole and he’s going to wish he never crossed me.”

Jun frowned, “You know who it is?”

“Oh, you bet I do. Told me something about needing to keep his gold pocket watch, that lying, stealing-”

“There’s no time!” The lady exclaimed, jabbing her finger at the incoming ship, “You can’t sail that way, the ship is going to get destroyed!”

She was right. For the second time that day, Jun closed his eyes and tried to count to ten. A harsh jab stopped him at five and he instinctively grabbed the lady’s wrist. “It’s too late.”

“Jihoon, stay at the helm.” He could make out the figurehead of the ship ahead of them. A maiden of sorts, not a pirate ship. A pirate ship might’ve just wanted their loot, but a ship flying the colors of a real navy? Jun didn’t want to think about what that entailed.

Three quick strides and a pull to the door took him inside his quarters. He pushed her inside rather unkindly. There wasn’t much time. Scanning his quarters for a weapon of sorts, he mentally cursed himself for not carrying more than one knife. The candle had been put out. It wasn’t useful. The makeshift chair was too weak. Everything else was unwieldy.

Shouts came from the deck as Jun made his decision, unstrapping his knife sheath from his side. “Take this. You know how to use it.”

She stared at him, eyes wide, “What about you?”

On any other occasion, Jun would have smirked and assured her that he would be fine. But the storm was still howling outside as if demanding to be heard. And the galleon was close enough that he could see their flag flying high and proud if he looked. And in front of him, even the lady looked scared, his dress soaked and her hair dripping. He didn’t even know how he had failed to noticed that the gunpowder had been dumped or how or why she went down and found out.

No, Jun didn’t think he could put on a farce today. Not with the clamor beneath them and the roaring noise outside. They were in a storm, that was for sure, but not a storm of just wind and rain. He turned away so she couldn’t see the grim expression on his face. “I’ll figure something out.”

On his way out, Jun paused. There was no more time. He weighed his options in his head, taking a deep breath before he said, “And if you have the chance to escape, take it.”

The door closed behind him.

And that was that. He turned his attention to the galleon roaring as it cut through the waves toward him, some members of the crew still attempting to man the ropes and the others surrounding Jihoon, hooks slashing through the air and arms and swords intermingling in frustration. The spot at the wheel, however, was coincidentally empty.

Bracing himself mentally for the imminent chaos, Jun adjusted his captain’s hat slightly, turning the feather at the side up in the wind, and strode out into the rain to the wheel where he belonged.

“Captain! There’s no cannonballs. Cap’n!”

“There’s no gunpowder, either. It’s been dumped!”

“The ship, cap’n! What’d we do?”

“Cap’n! She’s right o’er there!”

“Captain-”

“Everyone, listen up!” The crew had gathered in front him, awaiting commands, attentive and listening closely, sure that he knew what to do. It was similar to a scene from one of his dreams, with his crewmates looking up him, but that didn’t change Jun’s mind. He was the captain, and he was willing to do what he had to. Standing tall at the helm, his gaze didn’t falter at all from the incoming ship as he spoke. “Someone grab something white. You heard me. Something white and then wave it like your life depends on it, we’re going to surrender.”


	13. The Storm Pt. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Sorry this chapter is so late. It got much longer than I expected, but I hope you enjoy! Also, there will be some Seventeen members as antagonists but that reflects the plot of the story, not how I view them (they're all wonderful people in my eyes) 
> 
> P.s. I might've come down with something, so I may go on hiatus for a bit. We'll find out Tuesday ^_^
> 
> Castor

Inside the captain’s quarters, Minghao was still standing in the same spot, knife in one hand, unmoving as the yells from outside filtered in. But his mind was fixed on something else, the captain’s last few words.

“ _Escape_ ,” a voice repeated in his head. He didn’t realize that he had shelved the prospect away in the far reaches of his mind until he heard it tumble from Jun’s lips and wished that it hadn’t. That one word had brought up all his suppressed thoughts of sneaking off the ship and returning to his old life, on land, always going somewhere, always free-

“ _But Jun. The captain_ ,” another voice countered. Just a few minutes ago, the thoughts in his mind had been centered around the captain, watching the captain rest, needing to warn the captain, the captain-

Minghao closed his eyes as the noise increased outside. He didn't know which voice was the traitor.

 

~

 

“Lower the anchor!”

“But, cap’n-”

Jun glared the pirate down, “Now.” He could see that the galleon had already lowered theirs, harpoons latching onto the rails of the deck, digging their barbed teeth into the wood, sometimes splintering off pieces. The wind howled and waves crashed against the hull of both ships as they veered dangerously close.

He could see the sailors on the galleon preparing to board his ship. There were two men at their helm, first mate and captain most likely. He glanced at his own first mate by his side and Jihoon met his gaze grimly. It wouldn’t be long.

 

~

 

Minghao still hadn’t moved.

“ _He told you to escape. And it’s alright, as long as he’s alive-_ ”

The other voice cut in harshly, the one Minghao had been ignoring for the past few days if not weeks, the one he didn’t want to hear, “ _It doesn’t matter. It’s not like you can stay here forever-_ ”

His other hand unconsciously tightened around the pendant. He cursed out loud, “Fucking stop that. He saved you, goddamnit, and you’re going to just leave him here to die?”

The voice replied coldly, “ _You’ve done worse_.”

“Just shut up. Shut up.” Minghao brought his hand from his pendant to his temple, rubbing not all too softly. “To worse people. But it’s Jun.”

Protests ignored, it continued, “ _And he still thinks you’re a lady. What is he going to think when he finds out you’re not? It’s going to happen. You can’t stay here forever._ ”

Minghao opened his eyes and looked down at the knife in his hand. “But he told me to escape. He gave me this knife, his  _only_ weapon.” It was true. The captain had handed it over without a second thought, mouth set firm and the fire in his eyes burning steadily, as if… Minghao stopped there, not wanting the tight feeling in his chest to grow any larger. “Just, what if?”

The harsh voice in his head seemed to pause, grumbling before slinking away to the back of his mind. It seemed to whisper as it went, “Whatever, Hao. Have your little seed of hope now. Let’s see how well that goes.”

It was replaced with a faint whisper that corresponded to the soft ba-thump of his heartbeat, a softer voice that flitted around tentatively but with an insistence to be heard that only squeezed his chest tighter. If the previous voice had been his head, this was his heart. And it wanted to know, eyes or lips. Eyes or hair-

“Shit.” Minghao stumbled as the ship tilted, maps rolling off the table and compasses clattering to the floorboards. Instincts kicking in, he tucked the knife behind his back, and before he knew it, Minghao found himself at the window. Why did all of his thoughts and emotions have to bubble up now out of all times? He was thinking too much, he knew, and it was largely because he hadn’t slept enough, but that ended now if he wanted to survive at all. But his heart still tightened, demanding to know, eyes or-

“ _Stop_.”

The other voices went silent so that there was only one left. Minghao listened for one. He knew this voice well; it was the one that had been with him all those years on the street, the one that got him out of dangerous situations. And it was saying, “ _The colors_.” Minghao needed to see the colors the galleon was flying.

 

~

 

Jun grit his teeth as the sailors stepped aboard his ship. Grey with specks of red watered down in the storm, their uniform didn’t give much information away about their positions. But the two at the front were different. The taller one wore a striking dark blue suit decorated with rows of medals and other awards, an extravagantly gilded sword sheathed at his side. The man next to him was dressed in all black, no weapons obvious on his person, but Jun was weary of him regardless. Neither wore anything to identify their rank, but Jun could guess that they were the captain and first mate just as easily as he knew that the flag they were flying with red over white and blue indicated them to be Dutch.

“I thought you said we had an agreement with the Dutch!” Jihoon whisper-yelled from Jun’s side as the other two walked up to them.

“Yeah, with the  _Dutch_. These guys are from the _Netherlands_ ,” Jun whispered back.

Jihoon gave him an incredulous look and was probably about to retort that those two were the one and the same, but they were interrupted. “Weapons, please.” The one in blue gestured for Jun to drop his sword.

“Lay down your swords, men!” Jun placed his own on the ground carefully, keeping both men in the corner of his eye as he made sure his crew followed orders. He didn’t like the look that the one in black was giving him, cold and unreadable.

It seemed measured, calculated even. The rain pouring down in onslaughts directed by the wind, Jun rose up slowly, his hat slightly blocking his face. He hoped they only wanted spices or gold, yet deep down, he knew that was unlikely.

But he had to try. He could hear the unhappy grumbles coming from the deck where his crew was unarmed and surrounded. He could see the sails billowing with the wind, stretching this way and that, close to tearing. Jun tilted his hat and smirked, “We have spices and gold, so what do you want? In exchange for our unworthy lives, of course.”

The answer was immediate. The one in black narrowed his eyes and the one in blue replied, “Both. Everything you have.”

 

~

 

Jihoon watched the exchange with a clenched fist. Jun was playing a dangerous game here, and he barely even knew who their opponents were.

“There are some barrels of spices and gold in the hold. Woozi can bring your men down there.”

Jihoon wouldn’t give them everything -hell, most of it was hidden and it wasn’t even below deck, but he figured Jun knew that. He had to know that.

Jihoon glared at Jun, but he didn’t refuse. The captain wanted him out of the way. For what reason, he wasn’t sure. Grimacing, he let himself be flanked by two sailors as he walked away. The captain, at least, was still armed, he reassured himself. Jun’s knife was always hidden at his side.

From behind him, he could hear the bargaining continue.

“And I’ll be taking a look in your quarters.”

“Actually, I’d ask that you don’t- Hey!”

Straining to hear Jun as he opened the hatch leading below deck, Jihoon prayed to whatever deity was up there that the captain wouldn’t do something stupid. He stepped down slowly, reminding himself that his trust in the captain was well-placed. Another step. The captain understood priorities. Jihoon stopped for a second, growling under his breath, “Goddamnit, Jun. Don’t do it.”

 

~

 

Jun simply watched, powerless to stop him, as the man in black strode towards his quarters. Hand clenching and unclenching at the empty spot by his side, he turned back to the one in blue, forcing an easy grin, “A sailor under the famous Dutch navy. So how should I address you?”

“Captain Kim Mingyu.”

Jun jotted the name down in his memory, hiding his glance to the side with a bow. “Captain Wen Junhui at your service. And your first mate?”

“Jeon Wonwoo.”

He didn’t bother remembering that name. In a few minutes, there might not be any need to use it anymore. Mouth tugging downward, Jun wondered if he would be able to take the sword away from the other captain if it came down to it. Because it just might.

 

~

 

Minghao was sitting on the bed, the knife hidden behind his back when the door opened with a thud. He kept still, eyes scrutinizing the newcomer from head to toe.

“What do we have here? Someone or something important, I hope.”

Minghao could have asked the same. The man was toned even if the soaked black fabric of his suit hid most of him. He had no medals or other decorations, but he had the air of someone who knew they had power. Minghao narrowed his eyes, fingers tightening around the knife hilt. No visible weapons either.

“You’re Dutch.” The colors had said as much. “Not the captain, first mate, maybe? Definitely from some preppy school or lifestyle-”

He watched as the man moved around the room, upturning chairs and pulling out drawers before rummaging through their contents. He picked up a map or two and some other document Jun had kept in his locked chest before Minghao realized what was going on. “You’re stealing. That’s illegal.”

“This is a pirate ship.”

“So what?”

The man stopped his search to look at Minghao with that same cold expression. “I’d say it’s justified.”

Minghao bit the inside of his cheek as the man walked closer. A surprising calm had taken over him, cooling the anger in his stomach and soothing the tremor in his hand. “Maybe in the Netherlands, bastard. We’re in English waters.”

The man stopped barely a few inches from his face. Minghao hated that aloof expression. “It doesn’t matter where we are. I think you should close that mouth of yours or you’re not getting off this ship before we sink it, aye?” Minghao closed his mouth shut. He could hear the blood rushing through his veins as his muscles tensed up. The sound was almost deafening, and the voices in his head had all gone silent, as if waiting, watching.  “There, that’s much better. You want to live, right? Just be quiet and follow me-”

The man turned around and that was his mistake. Eyes trained on the other man’s sword hand, Minghao lunged forward, grabbing the man’s wrist in one hand before  slamming him to the floor, knife pressed to the back of his neck.

“You b-”

The blade tip brushed over pale skin as Minghao snarled down at him, “Shut it liar. You’re Dutch. I’m English. Do you think I’m stupid?”

 

~

 

At the helm, Jun was about to try his chances when a loud sound came from behind the doors. Within the second, the sword he had been eyeing was at his back, the blade digging in slightly as the man behind him demanded, “Inside, now.”

Jun complied. The doors swung open to reveal the lady straddling Wonwoo, knife at his throat.

 

~

 

“King Charles declared war recently, so no, you weren’t going to let me get off this ship anyways.” Minghao heard the doors open and jerked his head up quickly, eyes widening at the two figures standing in the doorframe.

“Bright girl, that’s a pity.” Decked in decorations. Seemed like the other captain. But the second figure-

Minghao gasped, “Jun.”

“Now you call me by name, huh?” The captain smiled ruefully, hands up and a sword at his neck. Minghao growled, unconsciously pressing the knife edge a bit harder against his hostage’s neck. His heart felt like the blades were instead digging into him as his eyes flickered from the other captain, the sword, and Jun.

“Let go of him.”

The newcomer cocked his head toward Minghao’s hostage. “Let go of _him_.”

“No, you first.”

“No.”

“Y-”

Jun cut Minghao off, his tone light but his eyes serious. “Alright, everybody. How about we stop arguing about who lets go of who first and just let everyone go? Clearly none of us wants to die so let’s be gentlemen and gentlewomen and talk this through peacefully.” He reached up to nudge the blade in front of his Adam’s apple. “So sword off my neck, knife away from his neck, did I mention sword off _my_ neck-”

“No.”

The other captain didn’t make a move to move Jun’s hand from the sword though, and Jun continued, a hard glint in his gaze, “Don’t be so stubborn. Look here, Woozi only showed your sailors a barrel of spices, right? We still have three more of those and their weight in gold stashed on board, so I wouldn’t be so quick to threaten the only one here who knows where those are.”

“I could ask your first mate.”

“He doesn’t know.” The captain had a good poker face.

Minghao watched both of them, every muscle in his body tensed and waiting for one of them to slip up. It could just be him, but the air in the room seemed to have gotten an electrical charge mixed in somehow, fizzling around and tinging the tones of their voices.

“What about her?”

“She doesn’t know either. You think I would trust a woman with this?”

Minghao frowned. It should be the other way around; he was sure the captain was bluffing about the spices and the gold, because he _did_ know where the first mate had hidden everything. Saw it from the window, but he kept quiet.

He noticed the other captain stealing glances at the man beneath him, the concern barely masked on his face. There had been an uncertainty to that man since Minghao had refused to remove the blade from his hostage’s neck. It looked like he was close to cracking. “So, what? You give us more loot and we set you free?”

Minghao was sure Jun noticed it, too, because a bit of hope snuck into his voice. “Sounds good as long as I got my neck, my ship, her, and my men after all of this.”

The Dutch captain cast a glance at his first mate, and Minghao followed his eyes down. An ever so slight shake of the head.

Minghao’s eyes narrowed. Uncertainty...or perhaps a lack of authority. Did the man ever confirm he was the first mate or had Minghao just gone along with the assumption?

The man in blue said, all uncertainty gone, “I want her.”

“No.”

Minghao and Jun spoke at the same time. Their eyes met and Minghao could have sworn the electrical charge had come from them, especially with how his chest tightened painfully like a shock had passed through him.

“Then no deal.”

They were both bluffing now.

Jun set his jaw and raised his chin, “Then I go down with my ship.”

That wasn’t a bluff.

All the blood came rushing back through Minghao’s head as he surveyed the situation. They were at an impasse. He looked around the room frantically, urging himself to think, for fuck's sake. The man in blue had Jun, but Minghao had the man’s captain, too. And judging by the way the man’s gaze went slightly soft when he looked to Minghao’s hostage, the man in black meant something to him, just as Jun meant something to Minghao.

Heart pounding, Minghao swallowed. He didn’t even have to listen to the voice in his head to know what he needed to do. There was only see one way out of this.

Shifting slightly, he moved the blade down to the man’s side and-

“Wonwoo!”

The man in blue cried out, almost dropping the sword before he caught himself. Minghao grimaced, something wet and sticky seeping onto his hand. “Release Jun or it won’t be just your captain’s stomach next time.”

The man looked conflicted, his eyes wide in horror, yet he didn’t move the sword from Jun’s neck. Beneath Minghao, the captain tried to argue, “Mingyu, listen to me. This is just a flesh wound, it’s not serious-”

Minghao pushed the edge in deeper. There was no turning back now. “No, listen to _me_. I’m the one with the knife here. You have two choices. One, go with your original plan: loot everything on this ship, go back to your ship, and sink us, but now your captain dies-” His voice was shaking slightly. Forcing his fingers to relax around the knife handle, a large part of him hoped the cut wasn’t as bad as it looked. The knife didn’t go too deep, just enough for the blood to look bad, and he hoped the other man would fall for it. He continued, “-of blood loss during the time the two ships try to engage each other. Two, you leave now with your captain and the rest of the crew, no more blood is shed, neither ship is sunk, and your captain lives.”

Minghao stopped there, watching the first mate’s expression carefully. “Choose.”

The man squeezed his eyes shut and, despite a warning growl from the captain beneath Minghao, let his sword swing down to his side. “I can’t lose you, Wonwoo. I don’t care if it’s just a flesh wound.”

Jun quickly stepped away, and Minghao got up off Wonwoo, knife slick with blood in his hand.

The captain grumbled, but he let his first mate pull him up and support him as he limped toward the door. “It really isn’t a mortal injury, Mingyu.”

“I don’t care.” The first mate picked him up carefully into a bridal carry. “We’re going to port immediately.”

“It’s not worth it.”

“Your life is worth more than anything else.”

Wonwoo finally acquiesced, leaning into Mingyu. “Whatever. Let’s just go.”

Not moving lest the two decided to turn around, Minghao watched as they went out on deck and returned to their own ship. The other sailors followed and he finally let himself breathe again.

 

~

 

Jun heard the door click shut somewhere behind him. The howling of the wind outside had died down a little and he could hear Jihoon yelling for his men to raise the anchor. The storm had passed, for now.

During the exchange, when he hadn’t been inching away from the sword against his neck, he had been watching the lady. The way his name fell from her lips when she first saw him. The way their eyes had met, and the way a charge had seemed to pulse through him at her gaze. When he had said that he would go down with his ship rather than give her to Mingyu, he hadn’t been bluffing at all.

He’d fully expected to find himself at the bottom of the ocean, his precious ship splintered into pieces, but she had saved his life- “ _Or hers_.”

Looking into those eyes, he had allowed himself to imagine that she was doing it for him, and for those few seconds, he almost didn’t mind the prospect of ending up in Davy Jones’ Locker.

In the back of his mind, his subconscious was groaning, demanding that Jun look at what he had gotten himself into, but he ignored it. He wasn’t surprised that she had managed to take the other captain hostage. If she had done it to him once, surely she could do it again to someone else. He had seen the deft flick of her wrist, his knife in her grasp, and wondered how practiced the motion was. But those questions could wait.

She was still standing in the same place, knife in hand, dripping blood. Quietly walking over to the lady, Jun took her by the hand and pulled her gently towards the washing bin despite a strong pull back and protest of “I’m fine.”

“There’s blood all over your hands,” Jun explained. He slipped the knife from her grasp and tucked it into his belt before taking both her hands in his own and submerging their arms in the frigid water.

The lady gasped and tried to pull her hands out but Jun stopped her. “Just let me help, this once,” he said softly. He took her hands in his again, and this time, she didn’t flinch from his touch.

Working slowly, he rubbed at the blood on her skin, smoothing his fingers over her wrists and covering her hands in his every so often to make sure she wasn’t cold. When he was done, Jun tugged off the sash above his belt and used it to dry her hands. Jihoon would be getting impatient outside, he knew. Picking the lady up carefully, he didn’t let himself hope that she had leaned into his arms as he carried her over to the bed, placing her down gently in the lump of blankets.

Glancing to his side at the window, Jun could see that Jihoon was trying to get the pirates back to work. He would need help. With a light swish, Jun slipped off his cape and placed it on top of the layers of blankets.

“I’ll be back,” he promised, “just rest for now. You’ve been through a lot.”

“Wait.”

She caught his wrist before he could leave, firm grip pulling him down next to her. “Your neck. Are you- is it bleeding?”

“Would you like to check?” Jun laughed at the glare on her face before reaching up himself to feel for the cut. “It’s fine. Nothing to worry about.”

She nodded and let go of his hand. The arguing outside had grown louder and Jun could almost distinctly hear Jihoon yelling. He got to his feet reluctantly, the warmth on his wrist fading. “I’ll be back,” he echoed his promise from before, feet feeling heavy as he headed for the doors. Glancing over his shoulder one last time to make sure she was settled in comfortably, Jun felt his chest tighten painfully when she met his gaze. Then he turned, and the doors closed behind him once again.


	14. Stalling for Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Looks like my health is okay xD Please read the ending scene to the last chapter again if possible; I changed it up because I wrote it at like 2 am O.o Hope y'all like this chapter and do leave comments, suggestions, etc. <3
> 
> Castor

The storm was passing. Jun tilted his head up, letting the rain trickle down his face and the wind whip through his hair. Soon, the sun would break through the clouds again and the sleepless nights at the helm would fade into his memories. Just not yet.

“I’ve sent most of them back to their posts.” Jihoon was striding up to him, the mumbles of the pirates at deck obvious to both of them. “Hook got stuck at the bird’s nest so I sent the boy up to get ‘im. If it doesn’t work, I might as well leave ‘em there.”

Jun laughed but his eyes were following the men on deck. “You mean you’d go up and get them both, I get you. Since when did you call him Hook?”

“Since now.”

Jun raised an eyebrow and Jihoon rolled his eyes. It meant: “Cut to it, _now_.” His first mate leaned in and whispered, “I think we should get the rat who dumped our gunpowder. I want to kill him, but he’s more useful alive. Send the crew’s attention that way, you know?”

Jun nodded, “Scapegoat. And the extra spices and gold?”

“I can get it. What do you want to do with it?”

Jun thought for a second. “We’re going to port tomorrow. Need to stock up again and there’s no point in keeping it from the crew anymore.”

There was a flash of movement on deck, and before Jihoon could agree, a fight had erupted. Their rat was right in the middle of it. Not sparing a glance at the other, captain and first mate sprinted down the steps towards the fray. “You get the rat. I’ll talk.”

“Last thing.” Jihoon grabbed Jun by the elbow just a few meters from the brawl. “We got lucky today, coming out of this alive. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.”

Jihoon grimaced and then his sword was out and he was gone. Grinning despite himself, Jun yanked a crew member back before pulling out his sword as well. He side-stepped as another pirate went flying past him. Then a sword. And someone’s empty rum bottle. Jihoon could be really scary when he tried.

Before he knew it, the fight had broken apart, leaving Jihoon with a foot on the rat’s back and the other pirates circling around them. His first mate’s eyes were blazing and he was leaning on his sword triumphantly, a murderous aura surrounding him. Jun hadn’t expected anything else.

Walking over slowly, Jun stopped next to Jihoon and addressed the crew, “This ‘ere. He’s the rat that almost sent us all to the bottom of Davy Jones’ Locker. For a few little gold pocket watches, he dumped out the gunpowder we needed. Just for some little trinkets. And how do we feel about rats?” He raised his voice, “How do we feel about ‘em, men? How do we feel about surrendering to ‘em sailors?”

The response was immediate.

“Kill ‘im!”

“No! Chop ‘im into little pieces and feed ‘em to the sharks!”

“Make ‘im walk the plank!”

Swords were drawn with a swish and many a pirate had abandoned his posts to join in the chants. They had advanced closer to the man squirming under Jihoon’s boot, knives, swords, hooks, and other blades pointed towards him as the circle drew smaller.

“The plank, the plank!”

“Cap’n, throw ‘im in the hold!”

“No, the plank!”

“Rats walk the plank!”

“Kill ‘im!”

“That’s enough.” Jun stopped them with a hand. He gestured for Jihoon to step aside before bending down and hoisting the man beneath him up by his collar. “He goes down to the hold, I’ll take him there myself. The rest of you go back to work, we’re heading to port tomorrow.”

 

~

 

Jihoon sent Jun a glare as the captain walked away, leaving him to deal with the sudden confusion over going to port. It really was insufferable at times-

“We’re heading to port?”

“But we don’t got any gold!”

“What’ll we do?”

“What about the storm?”

Jihoon groaned inwardly and thrust his sword back into its sheath with a loud thunk. “Listen up, you scurvy-ridden baboons. We do have gold.” He paused, noticing that all eyes were on him and not liking it. He had a feeling that he wouldn’t like the crew’s response to his next words either. “I hid it.”

He was right. Trying to yell above the din created by pirates arguing over what to do with the gold, pirates demanding to know where the gold was, pirates pointing their swords at him and not asking very nicely why he had hidden gold from them, Jihoon felt his temper snap. He drew his sword with a growl as the others quieted down.

“I said. I hid the gold.” He paused as if daring anyone to oppose him. “It was meant for situations like these. We need to get more gunpowder and cannonballs, aye? That’s what it’s for, so we don’t all sink next time some back stabbin’ arse gets us into trouble.” He got blank stares and grudging “aye”s in response. For a second, Jihoon got an uncomfortable gut feeling that it should have been Jun explaining to the crew. But the second passed and he ordered the pirates back to their posts. Another day would go by and the rain would stop entirely, most of the day’s troubles gone from his mind as they went to port. But about a week later, the memories would all come flooding back to him, and Jihoon was going to wish he had listened to his gut. But for now, he ignored it, climbing up the ropes to fetch Hook and the boy from the crow's nest, just as Jun had known he would.

 

~

 

The lock clicked shut.

The man inside reached for Jun through the bars, his hands clawing fruitlessly at the air. He had overturned his pockets and tried to find some coins or something else of value, words overlapping as he begged the captain to let him go. “It was just a few pocket watches!”

“To you.” Jun’s voice fell low as turned away. “It was just a few pocket watches to you.” The talk with the crew had gone as well as he’d thought, so why didn’t he feel satisfied? He didn’t know where the flash of anger had come from, but he didn’t want to pursue it.

Jun walked briskly up the steps, the hatch slamming shut a bit louder than usual as he reached the deck. The crew had gone back to their usual tasks and Jihoon had replaced Hook and the boy at the crow’s nest. Everything had gone back to normal.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the intermingled smell of rain and the sea. The downpour hadn’t stopped but the wind had died down, and somehow he could tell that night had fallen through the unchanging darkness of the clouds. Careful not to make a sound, Jun opened the doors to his quarters where the lady was still sleeping.

He found himself smiling at the way she seemed dwarfed by the blankets, his cape snugly tucked around her shoulders. A hazy light filtered throughout his quarters from the candle on his desk, illuminating the lady and the empty dip in the blankets next to her. Jun looked at the spot wistfully but closed the door and turned around.

He would wait until she woke up. It had gone on for so long already, he could stall just a bit more.

 

~

 

Minghao woke up from a nightmare. It was a familiar one, but he hadn’t had it in years. All he remembered was the screaming, the blood, and oh, the _blood_. Gasping for breath, he looked down and almost screamed at the blood on the hands before remembering that the captain had washed the blood off and that he was holding Jun’s cape, which was a deep velvety red.

He breathed out and the scream dissipated. He was alright, Jun was alright, Vernon was alright, Seungkwan was alright. Hell, even Jihoon was alright. They had all come out of the storm alive.

Thanks to him. Minghao grimaced, more like thanks to the voices in his head. Now that his mind was finally clear, everything was coming back to him. The storm, the suspicious pirate that his gut couldn’t let him ignore, the other ship, the way he entered a sort of survival mode, and then just-

Jun.

Jun leaving him the knife. Jun telling him to escape. Jun refusing to let the Dutch take him. Jun washing his hands of the blood. Jun, who was standing at the door.

Minghao mumbled out a hoarse “hello” as the captain moved to sit at his bedside. He could feel his cheeks heating up and he knew his emotions were in a mess. He remembered the voices. He also remembered his hope.

He knew he had feelings for the captain, but how far could he take it? He had already risked his life to save the captain’s. How much further? What did he even want? He wanted to go back to that night under the stars and the silent timelessness they had shared, but at the same time, he didn’t. So what did he want?

Minghao wasn’t sure he could choose an answer. Ever since he left the castle for the streets, he had wanted gold. Gold got you everything else you wanted after all, basics like food and shelter all the way to luxuries he’d never even heard of before. But now-

“You’re not calling me by name now?”

Minghao grit his teeth. He had to make a choice.

“Me for your ship, your life, and your men. Why not? No, don’t give me that vague answer again about how you just can’t tell me.” Minghao paused for a second. He shouldn’t be getting angry, but suppressing his emotions wasn’t a good course of action either. Whatever. “It’s my life, I’ve been on this ship for god knows how long and I’m not a prisoner but I’m also not free and it’s confusing as fuck, so tell me why. Why haven’t you done anything but keep me here? Why are you protecting me? What do you want?” But before that, he needed to know.

“I’m waiting.”

The captain’s gaze rested on the floor and Minghao mentally pictured dragging it up to meet his own. He needed -no, his _heart_ needed to know.

Eyes or lips. Eyes or hair.

“For what?”

“The right moment, I guess. I’ve been stalling.”

“Moment for what?”

He held his breath as Jun looked up.

Eyes or lips-

 

~

 

Surprisingly, Jun’s breathing remained even. “ _Time waits for no one_.” Jihoon probably said that. “ _Just one more day_.” He remembered saying that, multiple times, to himself. It was about time that one day came around. He had to stop stalling.

But he thought back to the warmth, her eyes, and her smile. The way she had broken almost everything in his quarters trying to get the chain off. The way she had seemed to understand even in their silence that night watching the sunset.

He was still stalling. Think of it as a beginning, not an ending, Jun told himself. Or maybe even just a continuation. Either way, time to stop stalling.

 

~

 

Minghao’s subconscious seemed to yell at him to stop and pay attention to the captain. Jun’s face was unreadable, mouth stretched taut in a firm line, no trace of his usual smile even in his eyes. _His eyes._ They were closed as if the captain was contemplating what to do next and as he opened them, all except one of Minghao’s voices promptly went silent.

Eyes or lips.

Eyes or hair.

Eyes or-

Jun looked into his eyes. Then, something hard pressed against Minghao’s temple with a swoosh of air and his eyelids fluttered shut. It was if time had slowed to a stop around them, the candlelight unwavering and the air stagnant. Minghao almost wished that time had stopped, but a cool breeze seemed to drift over his head. His wig had slid to the floor with a soft thump, echoing the sound of Minghao’s heart as it, too, fell to the ground. _No_ , the captain had slid it off. Minghao snapped his eyes open.


	15. Eyes Closed and So Far Away

“Moment for this.”

The captain let his sword arm drop slowly back to his side as Minghao stared back at him, unmoving. He suddenly felt foolish in his petticoats and dresses, a horrible dread creeping into his heart. He knew what he must look like to Jun, real hair short and messy from being hidden under his wig, rouge unnatural against his pale skin.

_“You’re not a girl?” Minghao felt his airways squeeze shut as he tried to-_

Minghao backed up a step.

_Then another two, backing up against the door. He was stuck. The knife blade was digging into his palm-_

But the knife wasn’t in his hands now as it had been in that nightmare, that memory from years before. His hands were empty and Jun walked forward, narrowing the distance between them. The dread gripping at Minghao’s heart tightened its cold fist, whispering harshly that Minghao had known this was going to happen, that the captain would find out, and that Jun would-

Minghao squeezed his eyes shut.

_“That’s disgusting.” The count’s face twisted angrily, once regal features marred with some dark emotion. “Get out.”_

_Minghao had set his mouth grimly, the bruise on his arm blossoming into throbbing blue and purples, but he barely felt it over the hilt of his knife, clenched so tight the skin of his palm was red and raw-_

“I’m sorry.”

Minghao blinked twice and looked down. He had backed up onto the bed and Jun was sitting beside him, holding Minghao’s right hand in both of his own.

_-he had lunged forward and-_

The captain uncurled Minghao’s fingers from the tight fist he’d made, smoothing out the little red crescents in his palm and entwining their fingers together. His touch was gentle. Stupidly, Minghao wondered how it was possible for a sailor, let alone a pirate, to keep his hands so soft and free from callouses.

_-then the knife-_

He looked back up, eyebrows furrowing as he searched Jun’s face. There was a hint of nervousness about the captain, but it was hidden behind his soft smile. Minghao was used to that smile. The ever so slight tug upwards of his lips and the tilt of his head...Minghao forced his eyes upward to meet Jun’s. The captain had the same flame in his eyes as before, giving a simmering warmth to his gaze. He didn’t look disgusted or taken aback by his discovery.

_-it went-_

If possible, Jun looked almost normal.

 

~

 

Jun might have looked almost normal on the outside, but his heartbeat was probably double its normal rate.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. Ba-thump. He tried to calm it down but the view wasn’t helping.

The same piercing brown eyes. A crow’s nest of similarly brown hair. Jun liked it better than the wig. He could feel his heart skip a beat despite himself. If ‘she’ had been pretty before, the man in front of him was drop-dead beautiful. His high cheekbones paired well with a sharp jawline and overall angular features now that they were no longer hidden partly by his wig. He gave off an alluring but dangerous aura, and Jun found that it drew him in even more than before.

Oh, how he wanted to comb his hands through that hair and smooth the wrinkles on that forehead, but he stopped himself. Instead, Jun settled for rubbing small circles against the man’s wrist as he ignored the way his heart seemed to want to jump right out of his chest.

Or how it had felt like a stake had been stabbed through him at the way the man had squeezed his eyes shut and audibly gasped when Jun had slipped his wig off.

But remember, Jun reminded himself, this is your chance to set things straight. It was the only chance he would get after all, but for a second, when he noticed the other looking at him, he forgot what he meant to do.

“Why did you apologize?”

It was those eyes, it had always been those _eyes_ \- In the back of his mind, Jun knew he wasn’t making sense.

“Because I’ve known. For a while, too.” The man’s eyes widened and Jun continued without stopping for breath, not giving himself any time to regret what he was saying. “Since that first time at port, I’ve had a guess. And then the night I took you to see the stars, I’ve been sure ever since.”

“How?”

“Maria.” Jun paused for a split second to confirm that the other man didn’t recognize his own pseudonym. He was right. “The Duke of Canterbury doesn’t have a daughter and _Maria_ is the name of my ship. It could’ve been a coincidence that you picked that name, but I think you saw it on the hull before we captured the ship you were on, and it stayed in your subconscious.” He could see the gears turning in the other man’s mind; his own mind was racing ahead. The memories flashed across his vision, and he gulped, “And that first night, you wouldn’t let me, um, touch…” they both blushed and Jun dropped his gaze to their hands, “down there.”

Something flicked across the man’s eyes and Jun tried to explain, “That in and of itself would have made sense, but I knew your two friends were pretending, too, so…”

His voice tapered off and he looked back up into those eyes, hoping and not even sure what he was hoping for. The wariness had left the other man’s features, and reluctantly, Jun also let go of his hand. The air in the room seemed to have changed, almost as if it had developed a physical weight. Jun fancied that the spark of electricity had returned, but it was damped in the tense silence.

He broke it first, attempting to smirk like before, “You swear like a man, too.” But he gave up when the other glared at him.

So he waited, letting both the air and the silence settle around them. It hadn’t occurred to him before that the man might not have wanted to be found out. Maybe, like Jun during the comfortable silence that night under the stars, he had been content with what they had.

But Jun couldn’t assume that. Couldn’t delude himself any more than he already had. So he waited, for a confirmation, a rejection, for any sign that the man understood what he’d said so far.

While he waited, the wind outside had completely died down, leaving only a few wisps behind, small enough to be caught in a bottle. The rain was still steadily pouring, the droplets creating a small trails on the window pane. Idly, Jun wondered if the sun would be out by the time they got to port. That would make for more joyous celebration, but with the consistent pitter-patter outside, he thought otherwise.

Perhaps the charge he’d felt had been stolen by the humidity instead. The pattern of trails on the window had changed about eight times before the man finally spoke. “And the night you showed me the stars? How were you sure after that?”

Jun’s gaze softened at the memory. “Adam’s apple. You fell asleep while I was at the wheel-”

 

~

 

_Jun looked down with a chuckle. The lady was dozing off against the railing, barely twenty minutes after she had said she would stay up at the helm with him._

_She looked so peaceful there, lips slightly parted and head lolled back, her arms crossed over her chest amid the cushioning of her dress, that he was loath to move her. But the night air was chilly and he had no wish to see her get sick. So Jun left his place at the wheel and bent down beside her, one arm slipping behind her back and the other wiggling under layers of cloth in the general vicinity of her knees._

_He lifted her up carefully, making sure her head didn’t hit the railing, and made to move towards his quarters. Barely two feet from where he started, Jun felt the lady somehow sliding, so he shifted to get a better grip._

_Her head lolled to rest against his shoulder and when he looked over to check if she had woken up, he paused. The lady’s dress had been pulled down an inch or so, giving a moonlit view of her neck. Or_ his _neck, to be accurate-_

 

~

 

“Wait.” Minghao stared at Jun accusingly, “I woke up outside though.”

The captain smiled, his eyes unreadable, “Once I realized, I placed you back. Pulled up the dress to cover your neck, too, and got you some blankets. And then after a while, you woke back up.”

Just like that. Entire days and nights fixing the hairline of his wig and making sure his dress covered everything before he slept, and the one night he went outside, he let his guard down. Minghao wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.

The rational voice was back in his head, calmly stating that his stay on Jun’s ship had ended and that he should get Seungkwan and Vernon and leave, since the captain had no use for keeping him as a hostage anymore. It wasn’t the best case scenario but it wasn’t the worst either. Jun hadn’t forced him to walk the plank or anything. He hadn’t yelled at him, hadn’t called him names, hadn’t had a reaction close to anything Minghao experienced before. The captain had even held his hand and maybe, just maybe, that was enough for Minghao to leave quietly and not look back.

But the irrational one, the hopeful one, was nudging him to check everything again. The captain had seen through him, yet-

“You thought I was a guy and you still tried to sleep with me?”

Jun looked to the side and Minghao imagined a blush creeping across his neck. It wasn’t his imagination. “It was the first time I felt that way.”

Minghao felt a slight warmth spreading over his own cheeks. Ba-thump. _Ba-thump_. His heartbeat was speeding up and he mentally told it to slow the fuck back down.

Jun had saved him. Had afforded him almost every comfort on the ship. Had saved him again when he left Minghao his knife. And he’d done so knowing that Minghao was male the entire time.

Minghao didn’t want to hope, but… “What am I to you?”

 

~

 

“ _What am I to you?_ ”

Jun didn’t want to give himself false hope, but goddamnit, the man next to him made that so hard. Did he want to mean something to Jun? Did Jun mean something to him?

The man was clearly waiting for an answer. His lips were pursed and he had folded his hands across his lap, leaning in over them. And those _eyes_ \- Jun could have sworn the man’s pupils had dilated, that the hope in his question was reflected in those eyes. God, how he wanted that to be so.

His logical side warned him not to delude himself; after all, Jun didn’t even know who the other man was. But a persistent ba-thump of his heart demanded otherwise. The atmosphere between the two had grown slightly tense, the sparks of electricity coming back to life.

He chose his next words carefully, “I want to know more about you.”

Not exactly answering the question, but not completely avoiding it either. The glimmer in the man’s eyes was still there, but it was faint now, and he seemed to relax, leaning back so he was propped up by his hand. Jun imagined that the man’s face had fallen slightly as well, but it could’ve just been the lighting.

The small sparks were still there, sizzling ever so quietly, and as a small smile graced the other’s lips, the weight of the air lifted and Jun grinned back tentatively.

Then the man jerked his chin forward, “You first.”

Jun raised an eyebrow.

“You introduce yourself as a fearsome pirate captain, but you’re about my age. And you don’t seem to have much pirate-like tendencies. They usually don’t have morals and all that.” That was true, but- “You don’t talk like it either.”

A deep frown. “Jihoon has mentioned that on multiple occasions. Is it that bad? Would ye ‘ather myself spoke like ‘is, cretin?”

The man glared at him again, and Jun started to wonder if he was like Jihoon, how grimaces meant smiles and glares were actually fond looks. That would make him feel a whole lot better, despite his feeling that a glare was just a glare. “Nevermind, that sounds bad, too. What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

Jun replied slowly, “Everything is a lot.”

The man met his gaze and Jun sighed. He might as well start from the very beginning.

“You might be wondering what sort of parents let their son become a pirate. Well, they didn’t, not really. I don’t remember much about them, just that everything had been happy and well until the day after my sixth birthday. I think it might’ve been the candle or it could have just been oil somewhere but our house went up in flames with me and my parents inside. I don’t know what happened but I ended up outside, only me. A little boy crawling back towards the fire…"

~

 

_After that, Jun was moved to an orphanage. It was where he met Jihoon, who would later become his best friend and first mate. But this was also where Jun and Jihoon’s memories diverged._

_If asked, Jihoon would have recounted that their first meeting started with a sniffling Jun clutching a stuffed animal, asking him to be friends for no good reason. He would never tell a soul that on Jun’s first day at the orphanage, when an older boy had noticed the newcomer and snatched the plush cat from his hands, Jihoon had tripped him rounding a corridor and returned it to Jun, prompting the boy to stop crying and simply stare at his savior._

_He had been shy then and much too kind-hearted, and it had taken another three encounters either running away from bullies together or standing up for even younger kids for Jun to finally ask Jihoon to be his friend. The other had stared back at him and then ran away. But it was inevitable. Another year or so pestering him and getting into more fights together, they were close friends._

_Really it was Jun getting into fights to protect the younger students and Jihoon joining to save his ass. Mother duckling, that’s what Jihoon called him, and Jun lived up to the nickname proudly. He didn’t have any siblings before he was sent to the orphanage, but if he had, most everyone would have wagered that he’d have been the same, fussy, caring, and overprotective._

_Then one day, a well-dressed man appeared at the orphanage’s front gates, cane in one hand and a bulging bag of coins in the other. Jun and Jihoon had watched him curiously but forgot all about it until they were both called in to the headmaster’s office. “You two have promise. I’m taking you to boarding school,” the man said._

_And that was that. They had the afternoon to pack and say their goodbyes, and then off they were to boarding school, in the backseat of the car of a man they hadn’t even seen before that day._

 

~

 

Jun stopped to catch his breath. He had wrapped his cape around his shoulders again but he still felt a bit exposed. He hadn’t told anyone about his past before; none of the pirates cared after all. And when he and Jihoon did reminisce about their childhood adventures, they were careful to leave out any parts that were painful or raw, anything they might have regretted.

“I missed them a lot, the other children there. Still do,” Jun admitted. He didn’t like feeling vulnerable, but he supposed that at some times, it was necessary. And with the way the other man was looking at him now, seeing through him like how Jun had seen through him before, he felt that it was necessary now.

“I’m sorry.”

He waved it off, “Don’t be.”

The other man frowned, “You went through a lot. Was boarding school any better?”

Jun’s grin was lopsided. “In a way, yes? I was a bit of a clown at the orphanage and it mostly just got me into trouble with the older kids and the adults. But being a clown at boarding school got me a group of friends. Lessons were difficult and boring and we fooled around a lot with sword fights and the like, don’t get me wrong, but just being there opened my eyes. Like the two buildings of the orphanage and the small hill it was on used to be my entire world, you know?” The man nodded and the flame in Jun’s eyes grew. He didn’t notice but they had shifted closer on the bed, hands barely an inch from the other if he had looked down, but Jun was looking almost off into the distance, his gaze fond and an expression of awe on his face.

“And then I found those maps in the library at the school and it was like, no, this is the world and it’s bigger than I could’ve ever imagined. My orphanage must have been a grain of sand if the island of England were a beach. But then there were worlds outside of England as well. Italy, France, the East Asias. And there was just so much land and so much sea and I couldn’t believe it.”

The man was nodding along. Jun continued, “We tried sneaking out to see the sea ourselves, Jihoon and I that is. Got caught but it didn’t really matter since there was a group excursion to go sailing the week after. And well, the first few minutes tying down a rope and working a ship, I fell in love with it. The ocean, the wind, everything.”

A small grumble snuck into his voice. “Just not under the Queen’s Navy.”

 

~

 

_Jun and Jihoon had both figured out by then that the headmaster was expecting them to go places with their so-called promise and give him a return on his investment. So Jihoon went into accounting and Jun said he would join the Queen’s Navy._

_It really was a pity he made that choice. “Clean the deck!” “Clean the deck again!” “Clean my shoe!” “Clean my sword!” “Clean this!” “Clean that!”_

_Jun was done by the second day. He wanted to sail a ship freely, not clean boots for sailors whose only job was to walk around and make deckhands clean everything in sight, goddamnit. But it wasn’t like he could afford to buy a ship, so what could he do?_

_He supposed he could steal -no, commandeer was a better word- a ship from the navy, but that would make him a pirate, wouldn’t it?_

_His decision was largely made for him. They hadn’t even left port yet, but a letter of instructions with more things to clean the next day was waiting for him on his hammock. Tearing it up with vigor, Jun waited for the sun to set and snuck off board._

_If he wanted to commandeer a ship, he had better have someone trustworthy at his side. Someone like Jihoon. He’d been to Jihoon’s lodgings only once before but he found it quite easily -a talent for navigating if he did say so himself. Quickly wiggling the doorknob to check that it was locked, he slipped around to the back, planting a foot on top of the trash dumped outside and hoisting himself in through the open window._

 

~

 

Jun grinned at the memory, “A lot of muffled swearing ensued. He drew his sword, I drew my knife. It was a miracle we didn’t get caught.”

“And then, what?” The man stared at him incredulously, “You managed to steal a ship from under the watch of over thirty sailors in the Queen’s Navy with the help of one other person?”

Jun tilted his head as if asking himself the same question and then nodded, “Yeah. We faked a fire on a different ship and they all rushed off to try and save it from going up in flames. Like moths to a flame I suppose.”

 

~

 

 _Moths to a flame_. Minghao felt a shiver run over his skin at the fire in Jun’s eyes. The captain probably didn’t understand how true his analogy was when applied to himself.

But he was still going. “And skip past me not being able to drink hard liquor and changing crews and letting go of a merchant ship, and somehow I capture the passenger boat you were on while half in a dream and here we are today. So yeah, I’m not really your typical pirate captain.”

“You had a decent upbringing.” Minghao thought back to how Jun fought well even with a wooden sword and how he talked like he must have read at least an introduction to grammar. And he was a good person, like Minghao had thought, and he admired the captain all the more for that. “That makes sense.”

The other accepted his compliment with a shrug. “Enough about me. It’s your turn.”

Minghao bit his lip. Jun had told him his entire life story, but he wasn’t sure how much he should tell the captain.

“Who are you?”

There were parts that he didn’t want Jun to know. The pain, the blood, the deaths. But he was sure there were parts to Jun’s stories that he hadn’t wanted Minghao to know either. That was the thing with this vulnerability, whatever it was between them at this moment. It didn’t matter that he didn’t want to tell Jun or that he was worried about Jun’s reaction, because he would, he owed it to the captain, who had let Minghao look straight through him and didn’t flinch.

Said captain was smiling again and Minghao wanted to reach for his pendant. “There’s more to you than meets the eye. I mean, not just anyone goes around pretending to be a lady to trick men.”

He frowned, “Are you trying to say something about me?”

“No, I’m curious.” Jun’s eyes turned serious. “I got the feeling you might have killed that Dutch sailor if you needed to. Not just anyone would be capable of doing that. Morally or physically.”

“ _You_ wouldn’t have.” Minghao looked away, not wanting to see himself reflected in the other’s eyes. Jun was right, he might’ve done it if it came down to that. But he didn’t want to play a game of who would have done what or who was the better person, didn’t understand how Jun looked at him in the same way as before, as if the captain trusted him. Jun wouldn’t have killed the man.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Jun tilted Minghao’s chin up so their eyes met again before dropping his hand. “He called my bluff. You were right about there being no other way out without losing the ship.”

Minghao frowned again, “What about your morals?”

“I act on my feelings. Those _are_ my morals.” Jun looked straight into Minghao’s eyes, the flame in his own burning bright, so warm that Minghao could hear his heart pounding in his chest, traitorously loud in the otherwise quiet room. With Jun’s stories of ditching school on a whim, entering fights against bullies, and straight-up stealing a ship from the Queen’s Navy, Minghao should have known. “What about you?”

He licked his lips before replying. They were dry, a bit chapped, too. “I had morals before. Still have them now, but morals kind of take second importance to not dying.”

“That just describes your morals.”

“Shut up.” The candlelight had burned down to a stub, yet even in the darkness, Minghao felt as if the captain could see him. See through him. He could tell that Jun was waiting and so he sighed, “My name is Minghao. Xu Minghao…”

 

~

 

_Minghao was only four when he realized what the word ‘illegitimate’ meant. A child born outside of marriage. Or him._

_It wasn’t that his mother and father didn’t love him, no, his mother, the maid, loved him with everything she had and his father, a duke, treated him as fathers normally treated their sons. His half-brother, too, a boy older than him by three years named Hoshi, saw him as no different from anyone else in the family. In fact, Hoshi adored his half-brother and would threaten to beat up anyone who called Minghao illegitimate or a bastard._

_But word spread and Hoshi wasn’t always around. Some days, it would be the other servants gossiping while they made that day’s dinner. Other days, it would be people in the streets, turning away tactfully or simply watching Minghao with a dark expression. There were some exceptions, including the butler’s boy, who they all affectionately referred to as Dino. Or Hoshi’s friend, DK, and their tutor, Joshua._

_But after his mother passed away, leaving him sobbing at her bedside, her pendant clutched in his hands, even they weren’t enough. Slowly, his father turned more to his wife, talking about Hoshi’s schooling and the inheritance, and though Hoshi always protested when Minghao brought it up, the younger boy knew that if he continued like this, he would simply fade into the shadows of the duke’s castle. Trapped by his identity as the ‘illegitimate’ son._

_So he left._

_Minghao grabbed some food from the kitchen and packed it in with his meager possessions into a small briefcase he’d found forgotten in an unused room. Leaving a note on Hoshi’s bed, he walked out the front gate into the city and didn’t look back._

 

~

 

Jun was looking at him with a mixture of sympathy and shock. Minghao was just glad it wasn’t pity. He regretted pausing after he had started talking, it made it so much harder to start back up again. His lungs felt deflated and breathing in barely helped.

He tried clearing his throat, “The city-” but Jun interrupted.

“Your pendant. Is it with you?”

Minghao nodded, a hand moving up to shift aside the ruffles at his neck and pull out a metallic chain, a pendant swinging slightly as he held it up for the captain to see. It was an infinity symbol, like an ‘8’ twisted onto the chain, a stunning silver.

“It’s beautiful.”

Minghao let it slip back against his neck. He meant to say thanks, but “It means a lot to me, the pendant,” came out instead.

Jun just smiled softly, as if he understood, and Minghao went back to where he left off, “The city might have been worse…”

 

~

 

_He hadn’t realized how much money mattered until he was on the streets. Food, shelter, forget goodwill and kindness, everything was bought with money. But you didn’t have to buy something to get it either._

_He wasn’t proud of it, but Minghao stole and swindled. He learned to pickpocket -learned how to nick a coin behind a man’s back without having to run down the street, turn into an alley, and jump the fence to make his escape- and how to reverse pickpocket, slipping the same coin into a different man’s cape and then gasping in surprise, claiming that the man had stolen from so and so, and accepting food in exchange for silence before stealing the coin back when the man turned away._

_He learned to be resourceful. A broken bottle made for a terrifying weapon, and the cart of watermelons an extremely efficient distraction. Those were the days when he listened exclusively to his gut, the one that told him how to survive, instructing him on next steps without end._

_It was how he lived until he met Seungkwan and Vernon. He had meant to steal some bread from the bakery and the chef’s son had caught him running away. But instead of handing him over to whoever was in charge, the boy had introduced himself as Vernon and given him another loaf of bread._

_“Are you working for Hoshi?” Minghao had accused him at first, but Vernon didn’t get angry at all. He said he knew of Hoshi but that he’d never met him, and no, couldn’t they just be friends?_

_After that, Minghao started dropping by the bakery more often and Vernon would always be waiting with some bread, a pastry, or whatever else he could get his hands on. Soon, he met Seungkwan as well. Seungkwan was Vernon’s childhood friend, the nephew of the man who ran the entire inn complex next to the bakery, laundromat of sorts, and alterations shop, and more._

_He had gasped in horror when he first saw Minghao, and a few days later, a clean set of shirts and shorts were neatly folded outside the laundromat with a note for him. Seungkwan loved to make clothes, Vernon had confided in Minghao, so he probably saw Minghao as the perfect project._

_“Stop calling me Seungkwan,” the other had complained, “we’re all friends, just call me Boo. Isn’t Boo so much better?”_

_“Sure, Boo.” Vernon had smiled back, and Minghao had smiled, too._

 

~

 

“Those two are the ones who came with you on board?”

Minghao nodded. The captain’s voice was softer and his eyes were slightly unfocused, as if he were thinking about something else, withdrawing within himself.

“They must mean a lot to you.”

Minghao nodded again. They did mean a lot to him, and thinking of them below deck with the pirates made his heart start to ache. They were only here because of him after all.

 

~

 

_Minghao was the one who had gotten them into the whole dressing as a girl business. One day, Seungkwan had asked him to try on a dress he was making for some lady or the other who had a similar height and was also of slight build. The fee was food, so he agreed easily. But then Seungkwan had also given him a wig to put on and left him standing outside the alterations store for over two hours as he went on an errand for his uncle._

_By the first half hour, Minghao had gotten tired of kicking around small pebbles and glaring at people passing by who might’ve stared for too long. But then a man had walked up to him, and stuttering, called him ‘my beautiful lady.’_

_Minghao had almost glared at him, too, and told him to fuck off, but the man had offered his arm and said, “Would you like to go somewhere to eat? I would be honored if you accepted.”_

_And Minghao had decided that Seungkwan could wait just a bit before he returned the dress._

_That night, he didn’t bother sleeping. He had pretended to be a lost boy before to try and swindle an unsuspecting lady but he had never tried to disguise himself as female. He didn’t like it, but he had to admit it was much more rewarding._

_Two offers to pay for a meal together. Three questions of where ‘she’ was staying tonight. And not a single elbow or knee shoving him aside in the streets._

_It wasn’t that he was interested in the men at all either. But from what he saw and heard of women, they didn’t do much for him. And the men paid for his food._

_So he had borrowed the dress again the week after. And the week after that. Seungkwan soon found out and that meant Vernon would know within the day. But neither of them said anything or acted any differently until the day he came back asking for a knife._

 

~

 

Jun raised an eyebrow and Minghao shrugged to hide the tension in his jaw. “Some asshole tried to force a kiss on me even though I drew the line at physical contact. I knocked him out with a nearby chair but there are better way to get two hundred and fifty pounds off of a person.”

The captain nodded slowly, “A knife or sword pointed at said two hundred and fifty pound person’s neck would do it.”

“Vernon gave me a knife. They started to check on me more often though. I think that might be why they were there the day I first used it.” Minghao felt his stomach churn at the memory. It was the one that haunted his nightmares, starting with how he had mistakenly agreed to go with some count to his castle and then even more foolishly agreed to go with him to his bedroom.

 

~

 

_The count locked the door behind him and the warning bells went off in Minghao’s head. He hadn’t used the knife on anyone yet, but its hilt was in his hand and he wasn’t letting go anytime soon._

_But he let the count get closer, too close. The man was more built and more rough than Minghao expected, and before he knew it, the count had thrown him against the bed and seen what he needed to see._

_“You’re not a girl?”_

 

~

 

Minghao practically choked out those last few words, his hand curling back into a fist as if the knife were still in his grasp. The captain’s eyebrows furrowed and he reached out for Minghao’s hand but Minghao shook his head. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a second.”

He could already see the blood from his nightmares dripping red on his fist, but he forced the image away. He had gotten through it before, he could get through it again, especially if it was just the mere memory. He wouldn’t let it win.

 

~

 

_Minghao felt his airways squeeze shut as he scrambled to his feet. He took a step away. Then another two, backing up against the door. He was stuck. The knife blade was digging into his palm, both a blessing and a curse._

_“That’s disgusting.” The count’s face twisted angrily, once regal features marred with some dark emotion. “Get out.”_

_Minghao had set his mouth grimly, the bruise on his arm blossoming into throbbing blue and purples, but he barely felt it over the hilt of his knife, clenched so tight the skin of his palm was red and raw. He couldn’t get out and the count knew._

_“And then what? I leave and what will you do?”_

_The count walked forward with his fists clenched. “You’re going to wish I don’t find you ever again.”_

_No, Minghao knew, the count was going to wait until he left and then get himself a weapon and go to town to look for him. He didn’t seem like the type of person who would just let someone who crossed him go, especially a man pretending to be a woman who had almost convinced him to gift ‘her’ a hundred gold pieces._

_It wasn’t going to end well once the count got his hands on a weapon, but he was unarmed now. And Minghao had a knife._

_He asked one more time, giving the count one last chance, “Or how about we both forget that this happened? It’ll be better for both of us.”_

_The count only walked closer, within arm’s reach, his fists out and ready, and Minghao realized he must have forgotten that the door was locked. But something flashed across his vision and Minghao ducked the incoming right hook, moving on instinct._

_Suddenly, the count was staggering backwards, his arm outstretched and blood bubbling from his mouth. “W- wait.”_

_Minghao looked down, mouth dropping open at the sight. There was blood on his hand, sticky and red between his fingers and dripping from the tip of the knife. He had lunged forward, he realized, and he was no longer at the door._

_He had lunged forward and then the knife. His eyes settled on the count’s hand, uselessly clutching at his stomach, the blood flowing over his fingers to splat against the hardwood floor. The knife had went in. He had stabbed the count._

_“Help me, p- please.”_

_But Minghao only stood there, numb and unable to move, the blood still dripping from the blade, as the count died in front of him. And that’s where Seungkwan and Vernon found him after Vernon picked the lock on the door, Seungkwan gasping before rushing forward to take the knife from Minghao’s hands and giving Vernon a meaningful look as they each took one of Minghao’s arms and half-pulled, half-dragged him away._

_In the back of his mind, Minghao must have known that they were following him. They had both dressed up as well, though they didn’t stand out as much, and Vernon was armed with some cleaver of sorts from the bakery. Must have realized the castle was empty; the count had sent almost all his servants away for the day._

_But the thoughts stayed in the back of his mind. If there was a word to describe his consciousness, it would either be ‘empty’ or ‘numb.’ He barely remembered the way Vernon scouted out back alleys and how Seungkwan covered for them as they hid Minghao and his bloody dress in the shadows of buildings before finally collapsing in an inn room that Seungkwan had reserved._

_His friends had worked silently, first washing his hands of the blood then slowly inching the dress off of him, leaving him shivering in his shorts on the bed. Seungkwan had taken the dress to the laundromat while Vernon nudged Minghao into a clean shirt, and they had both pitched in to leave a warm meal beside the bed before tucking Minghao into the covers and locking the door behind them._

_Two hours later, the food was still untouched, but Minghao was fast asleep. Exhausted and barely moving, he had sunk into the mattress and pillows, a comfort he thought he’d forgotten, and dreamed of home._

 

~

 

“We shoved the dress in the back of some closet after that and I had a few nightmares, but I thought that was it. Then a month later, when things were looking bad, I got it back out.” A cloud passed over Minghao’s eyes, and even though Jun felt as if the ache in his heart couldn’t grow any larger, it did. “I made peace with it after a while, started getting more risky and such, ended up agreeing to stay with some lord in some other country. Toughened up by then, justified using a knife with the general immorality of the men I dealt with, but Seungkwan and Vernon were so worried, they refused to let me leave without them, and that’s how we ended up on the passenger ship you captured, all dressed up.”

“I see.” The irony of it all. A pirate with morals capturing a ship at long last, but he ended up taking prisoner a swindler pretending to be a woman, who then was found out soon after. How the pirate had started to care for the swindler, and how he hoped -how he still hoped more than ever that the swindler might care for him, too.

But Jun got up from Minghao’s side and walked to his desk. Someone used to being free, used to living by his own means and fending for himself, he had confined to one room aboard a ship in the middle of nowhere. He, of all people, should know how that felt, with his ever so clear memories of the tiny hammock he’d tried to sleep in, those first nights as a sailor.

Fingers twisting at an unseen knob on the bottom side of his desk, Jun let the hidden compartment swing open, its contents falling into his hand. He had to think about Minghao’s friends, too, possibly down in those same hammocks at the minute.

If he’d already stopped stalling, he might as well stop deluding himself as well.

He gathered up the coins in his palm and walked back to Minghao’s side, steps heavier than before. To hope that the man might stay was selfish, yet he had carried that hope, that _feeling_ , with him for quite a while. It was time to put it down, down and away before the hope grew into a burden and hurt the both of them.

 

~

 

Minghao frowned. He couldn’t see. The rain was still drizzling down outside and the clouds had blocked any moonlight or sunlight that would have drifted in. The candle had also flickered out, and he only realized that Jun had sat back down next to him after hearing the sheets crinkle.

“Is something wrong?” The captain had become progressively more quiet as Minghao told his story, and he couldn’t help but wonder why.

But Jun avoided his question. “You and your two friends. It’s been a long time on this ship, yeah?”

“Yeah?” Minghao tried to shift so that he could see Jun better, but the captain was shrouded in the darkness.

“You must want to go back. I’ll let you go.”

He froze up, heartbeat seemingly stopped, unwilling to break the silence. It wasn’t what he wanted, but the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth.

“We’re going to port soon. Today maybe.” The captain paused, the unexpectedly soonness of the event sinking in for both of them. Then, he murmured something to himself, something about stalling, before continuing, “It’ll be to resupply our gunpowder and cannonballs, but the next time we go to port after that, I’ll let you and them go. I have some gold coins I kept. You can take them with you.”

Something shimmered and Minghao saw that Jun had placed a stack of coins on his desk. The clouds must have parted for a moment, because a faint beam of sunlight glanced off the top coin and he looked into the captain’s face.

Jun’s words echoed in Minghao’s mind. “ _I’ll let you go_.” That had been what he wanted at the beginning, but now? He had gone through a typhoon of emotions after the captain had taken off his wig and now, now his pendant was warm against his skin and the captain was right next to him, closer than ever.

“What if-”

But the rest of his sentence was drowned out by the sound of the doors slamming open. The first mate burst in and Jun jumped to his feet, stepping away from the bed. “Jihoon?”

“Sorry to interrupt, but can we talk outside?”

“I-” The captain paused again for just a second, looking back to Minghao. But before Minghao could blurt out his question again, Jihoon whispered that it was important, and Jun had hurriedly promised Minghao he would be back and disappeared out the door.

Then, they were gone. And as the doors slammed shut behind them, Minghao heard the faint echoes of the words he had been about to say.

_“What if I wanted to stay?”_

 

~

 

Jun grimaced as the doors closed, “This better be important, Jihoon.”

His first mate stared back at him, the rain dripping drop by drop from his hair to the floorboards. “It’s about going to port. What were you doing that has you so wound up?”

Jun sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, the small drizzle helping to keep it back. “One, I was right. The lady is male. Two, I’m letting him and his friends go.”

The clouds must have closed back together, blocking out the sun once again, and this time Jun was glad he couldn’t see Jihoon’s face if it meant Jihoon couldn’t see his. He’d made a decision, and he prayed Jihoon wouldn’t question why.

But his first mate only stood there in silence, letting the rain drip through his hair. “At port today?”

“No.” Jun tried to explain, “I’ll let him leave the ship for tonight and you don’t have to watch those two, but I’ll actually let them go the next time we go to port after that. I’ll give them some of the gold I have stashed.”

“Why not today?”

Jun could hear the sincere question in Jihoon’s voice, and he understood his first mate’s confusion. After all, he had asked himself the same question just minutes ago. It wasn’t like him, but- “Just, a few more days. Isn't it selfish?”

Jihoon seemed to think about it for a second before patting Jun on the shoulder, “Not my place to judge.” Even in the dark, Jun could have sworn that an expression of worry had flashed across Jihoon’s features. Then, his first mate made to head below deck and Jun followed. “So about going to port today…”

 

~

 

Sitting on the bed alone as the rain plip-plopped on the boards overhead, Minghao somehow found that those same words were refusing to leave his mouth again. Perhaps they, too, were waiting for the captain to come back.

Sighing, he kicked aside the wig on the floor and moved to look out the window. It was still dark out, and through the water droplets trailing down the window, he could make out two vague shapes on deck.

Neither wore a captain’s hat, so it wasn’t Jun and Jihoon, but both were familiar. The way the taller one leaned in unconsciously and how the other slowed his stride to walk in pace with him. Vernon and Seungkwan.

The longing to talk to them returned, and Minghao almost contemplated opening the doors and calling out to them, but he stopped himself, the air leaving his lungs quietly. What would he say? “ _Let’s stay here_ ”?

He brought his hand up so his fingers ghosted over the window pane and then dropped it back to his side. He remembered seeing them scrubbing down the deck, tossing buckets of water overboard and hoisting the ropes in the middle of the storm, all while Minghao stayed inside. He remembered the way Seungkwan had almost given away his real identity twice on the passenger ship.

Minghao had forgiven Seungkwan, and Vernon attempted to help him practice, but in the end, they belonged somewhere else. They belonged home, Seungkwan rushing between errands at the inn and free time designing at the alterations shop with Vernon next door, taking out the day’s worth of dough. Not on a pirate ship unarmed and with no clue of where they were.

Yet the second Minghao had mentioned traveling over sea to some other country, Seungkwan had put down the shirt he was working on and Vernon had dropped his half-kneaded dough to the floor. There had been no way to talk them out of coming after that, and though Minghao didn’t understand then, he understood now. Because he understood, he didn’t want to think about going to port in a few days and leaving the ship, but he did. He owed it to them to take them back where they belonged.

After all, asking them to stay with him would be too selfish, wouldn’t it? He sighed again and walked back to the bed, sitting there quietly in the dark. For whatever reason, he reached up for his pendant but stopped halfway and let his hand fall back to the bed. Closing his eyes, Minghao whispered to himself, “At least I’ll have a few more days.”

 

~

 

Even when Jun came back a while later, Minghao had his eyes closed. It all seemed so far away, the day the captain had carried him aboard the ship, the many times he tried to escape, the first time when Jun saved him, the second time when he saved Jun, that night under the stars, and even the stories they had just shared.

“Before Jihoon showed up, were you saying something?”

“No, it was nothing.” Minghao kept his eyes closed as he heard the tell-tale signs of Jun sitting down at his desk. He didn’t want to open them and face the possibility that seeing the captain might cause everything to come back, might cause him to regret his choice.

So he kept his eyes closed. It would be better this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> I understand that this chapter was probably a rollercoaster of sorts for you (it was also a rollercoaster for me to write hence why it's so long and so late), and I would love to know your thoughts, emotions, etc. below :) We're probably halfway through the story about now to keep this in perspective, and if you have any comments, suggestions, etc., please leave a comment! ^_^ 
> 
> You can always message me on AFF or Tumblr; I don't bite! Thank you lovelies for all your support :)
> 
> Castor


	16. Caught in a Dream

Jihoon watched silently as land inched its way onto the horizon, the crew bustling around him noisily as they prepared to go to port within the hour. It was still drizzling, and though he had gotten used to the soft plop of the droplets as they fell from his hair to the floorboard, Jihoon couldn’t shake the unwelcome feeling the ceaseless rain gave him, that somehow they weren’t entirely in the clear yet.

That feeling kept him on his toes, despite the fact that the rat was locked up in the hold, despite the fact that S. Coups was keeping a low profile, and despite the fact that Jun soon would be releasing the prisoner -or maybe because of that.

Though Jihoon did not understand why Jun had made the decision then, he accepted it. The captain had his own reasons. And with the pain so evident in Jun’s voice, Jihoon would wager that if those reasons were important enough for the captain, they were also important enough for him.

He trusted Jun. Yet he knew just letting go of three prisoners would have repercussions. Mutiny was a possibility. General ruckus and bouts of violence was another.

Jihoon watched as the port came closer. It was largely shrouded in a mix of heavy fog and smoke from the fires blazing in front of the taverns. The dock solidified into view first, the mock gallows beside it towering out of the fog with two straw men hung with twine, eerily fading back into the hazy grayness as the ship passed by.

“Lower the anchor and watch yer step!”

“Aye!”

“Hey, runt.” Jihoon pulled aside the boy who he’d rescued from the crow’s nest. “I’m going to port. You stay on ship. Anything happens you come find me, and don’t even think of stealing, understand?”

The boy nodded, eyes wide.

Looking past him to the port, Jihoon grimaced. It would be just as easy for a man to slip in and out of the fog. With everything that had happened, the first mate had long forgotten to talk to the cook or S. Coups about their dealings with the two new recruits, but seeing the gallows had jogged his memory.

“Go wait below deck for now. The captain will be the last to leave.”

 

~

 

In Jun’s quarters, another candle had flickered out. The rain hadn’t lifted outside and so, a darkness blanketed the room again, punctuated only by small glimmers of moonlight sneaking out from behind storm clouds.

Jun sat patiently in this dark, listening as his crew disembarked, taking the shouting and yelling with them. He had his back to Minghao, who was tucking a shirt into his trousers in the corner.

“Are you done?” He asked softly, only to hear the clink of a belt buckle in response.

They had spent most of the day in their own thoughts, Jun in front of his maps at the desk or issuing instructions on deck outside and Minghao at the window or the bed, both of them replaying the day’s developments in their mind when they had the time. The only sounds in the room were the gentle plip-plop of the rain and the sloshing of the waves as they rolled into the ship’s hull, giving it a small rocking motion that Jun had long become accustomed to. Neither him nor Minghao said much, as if they had a tacit agreement of sorts, some shared understanding not spoken aloud.

That was until half an hour ago. When the docks could be seen from the window, Jun handed Minghao a shirt and trousers, neatly stacked with a pair of boots on top just as he had told Jihoon he would. He offered to take Minghao to port with him. Without speaking a word as to question why, the man accepted.

He changed in the dark, red dress slipped off and then the white one. After that went the padding Seungkwan had passed for a corset, the stockings, and the slippers. Only his pendant shined slightly in the dark, cold and metallic against his chest.

Jun had turned around as the first dress was pulled down, fully aware that Minghao could not see if he was looking and that he wouldn’t have been able to make out anything else even if he had. There he waited, hands clasped as he heard layers of cloth crumple lightly to the floor. Eventually, the tapping of boot heels against the wooden floorboards made their way over to him. “Done.”

So the captain got up, making his way to the doors in the dark.

As they creaked open, a warm light filtered in from the torches and lanterns burning outside. There was a hazy fog from the smoke and Jun could hear faint drinking songs floating their way to him from the taverns at port. Ever so familiar, the constancy of going to port kept many a pirate sane when he returned to the turbulent ocean, or at least drunk enough to believe so. Jun breathed in deeply before stepping out onto the helm, Minghao at his side. He wasn’t sure which of the two he would return as after the night.

With the dresses gone, Jun could see that the other was of a wiry build with a slight frame and toned muscles. The shirt was Jun’s and it was a size too large on Minghao, but he still managed to make it work, tucked into the trousers and held up with a belt. He cracked a grin, “You look better like this.”

Minghao glared at him, picking up his stride as he made his way down the stairs.

Outside, the air seemed lighter and faint ruckus bridged their previous silence. Jun opened his mouth and the words came out a whisper, “You know what you would look even better in?” Another glare. He cursed his mouth for going ahead of his head as he caught up to the man by the rails. “Sorry-”

“Nevermind, just shut up.” But there was no edge to Minghao’s voice. He waited as the captain swung himself over first, checking his footing before reaching out a hand to help Minghao over as well.

Then he took the hand that was offered and let Jun wrap an arm around his waist as they made their way down the ropes. The warmth was familiar and enticing, and Minghao almost closed his eyes, leaning into the captain’s hold more than he needed to. And when they landed on the dock with an oomph, Jun’s arm stayed around Minghao’s waist a second too long to just be protective and Minghao brought a hand up to Jun’s shoulder to steady himself, resting there for a few seconds even after he had regained his balance.

It was folly, anyone else might have said, to make the decisions they made and then act the way they did.

But as they walked into port together, shadows blending in the hazy fog behind them, Jun and Minghao paid such thoughts no importance. It was one night of the few they had together left after all.

 

~

 

They stopped outside the last shop on the street. Neither had had a real destination in mind as they wandered around port, only a measure relative to the man next to him, and without knowing it, they had walked in that manner, arms close enough to brush, past the lively taverns to a lone shop sitting at the outskirts of the port.

All around them, the dense fog had drifted through port, bringing with it a tangible weight as it settled. It didn’t seem like they could go any further. Jun turned to Minghao with a wry smile, “Should we go in?”

The man seemed to be considering the option, and they both knew that if there had been something inside that Minghao fancied, it would’ve become his, but he shook his head, a mischievous glint to his eyes. “Let’s go back to one of the taverns near the dock. That’s where pirates gamble, right?”

“Alright.”

They fell back into silence, walking back the same way they came, and Jun found himself wanting to keep walking this way, the heavy fog around them giving the illusion that it was just the two of them in a world of their own, no pirates and no ship to return to, but as they rounded the street corner, Jun heard some familiar voices.

“Mateys, ain’t that the cap’n over there?”

“Aye, ‘tis the captain.”

“Cap’n!”

The captain swore under his breath as several of his crew came closer. He’d hoped not to run into any of them so early, but with the port being as small as it was, that was impossible.

“Say, who’s this lad ye got, cap’n?”

“Someone ye know, cap’n?”

“Fresh meat,” Jun gave them his practiced smirk, though if Jihoon had been there, his first mate would’ve noticed a slight strain. “Might have some new recruits wipin’ down the deck rather than you useless lot.”

The pirates roared in laughter, and one of them clapped Jun on the back, close enough that he wrinkled his nose at the rum, “Lots better than those two crossdressers, aye mateys?”

“Aye, always together, those two.”

“Ain’t true,” one of the pirates argued, “I saw the shorter one by ‘imself today!”

Another pirate knocked him down, “That’s only one day, you nimwit!”

Beside Jun, Minghao’s eyes narrowed but the captain shook it off. “Say, you lot ain’t drunk enough to be fighting already and I have other business. How about you all head to that tavern down the street?”

“Captain,” a pirate piped up as they left, “are you going to stop the first mate?”

“Woozi? What’s wrong with him?”

“Haven't you seen ‘im? Since we go to port, he ran off like the devil’s gotten to ‘im.”

“Hm.” Jun raised an eyebrow. That sounded like a Jihoon thing to do, though it was unusual the first mate had gone ahead without telling him. “I’ll keep an eye out,” he promised halfheartedly, waving the pirates away, eager to get on with his night.

Finally, the figures disappeared back into the hazy glow near the taverns, and it was just him and Minghao again. They had until sunrise, and the captain would be a fool not to take advantage of their time while he could. Jun turned to Minghao, light illuminating a soft smile on his face.

“Let’s go.”

 

~

 

They ended up circling around port another time. In a setting that should’ve been more at home for the captain, Jun marveled at how light Minghao was on his feet, easily dodging drunken pirates as they toppled to the ground next to the barrels they had been sitting on or slipping past groups of prostitutes that then swarmed Jun.

“Sorry, ladies -hey, let go- not interested. Hey!” Jun managed to untangle himself from their grasping hands only to end up out of breath and blushing, both at the way the women had pressed up against him, the softness so very real, and the way Minghao had been watching him struggle, eyes crinkling and a hand over his mouth.

“Thanks for the help,” he grumbled lightheartedly as they made their way into a tavern. The other man only shrugged back at him and squeezed himself into a table of gamblers as Jun watched from the side, a bemused smile dancing across his lips.

Whatever game was being played, Minghao was good. A torch was burning on the wall, and it brought out a glint in the man’s eyes as he picked up his cards round after round. Being the only one sober at the table must have helped since the pirates downed booze by the gallon, slamming their fists against the wall or gnashing their teeth when their own coin piles diminished and Minghao’s grew. Jun didn’t even want to guess where the coins he gambled with had come from, judging by how his pocket felt a coin or two lighter.

Minghao looked like he was in his comfort zone, keeping a poker face as he lied about the cards in his hand, and Jun would have liked to keep watching, but he was too good. A pirate or two had already quit, stomping off with his fist clenched. Several of the others at the table also had their hands at their sword hilts, waiting for Minghao to take _one_ more coin from them.

And as Minghao reached over for that fateful coin, Jun cut in.

“Well mates, it’s been mighty fun playing ‘ere, but it’s about time me and my friend left, so we’ll just _leave_ some ‘o this with you and be gone-” He pushed some of the gold forward before grabbing Minghao by the hand and running, blatantly ignoring the fight that had erupted behind them, the glass that shattered at his feet, and the dagger that had buried itself up to the hilt in the wall next to Minghao’s head.

They kept running as they burst out into the street, a pirate or two still following them. Turning a corner with a glance behind him, Jun felt the wind rushing past him as he sped up, ducking into an alley with Minghao next to him. His heart was pounding but in a sort of exhilaration.

“This way.”

Sometime during their escape, Minghao had let go of his hand and run off in front of him. He had a wide grin stretched across his face as he climbed onto a barrel and hopped to the roof of some inn. Jun followed, collapsing into a sprawl.

He was panting, “Are they-”

A hand clapped over his mouth.

The pounding of his heartbeat grew louder in his head as he waited, listening to the two pirates clashing below, overturning the barrel in their search before finally giving up and heading back with a string of swears.

Finally, the hand was removed from Jun’s mouth and Minghao laid down on the roof next to him. “You didn’t have to fucking give them my gold, you know.”

“Sorry not sorry,” Jun turned his head to face Minghao, “A distraction was needed before those hands of yours got cut off. How much did you lose?”

The man smirked, uncurling his fingers to show Jun the coins in his palm, “Nothing.”

Jun’s eyebrows rose. “Not possible.”

“Now it is.” Minghao curled and then uncurled his fingers again and his palm was empty. “To be fair, I couldn’t grab the coins you shoved at them. But I’d already pickpocketed the pirates next to me so it evened out.”

Jun just laughed in disbelief, “I can’t believe you.”

“You better.” Minghao showed off his sleight of hand, coins appearing between his fingers before disappearing as if by magic and reappearing in his other hand, glinting devilishly in the moonlight. He repeated the action twice before tucking the coins away in some pocket and propping himself up on an elbow. The show had ended.

Jun got up slowly, checking that no pirates were waiting to ambush them this time below before jumping down to the streets with a tuck and roll. Rising to his feet quickly, he brushed the dirt off his cape before offering a hand to Minghao. The other man only grinned and jumped down himself, “So where to next?”

 

~

 

They had gone to find food next, going from a butcher shop to some exotic mess of women and live animals before eventually deciding on some sort of meat kabob at a street stand and getting into a slight dispute about who would pay.

“You have gold now.” Jun motioned for Minghao to go ahead.

But the man refused, “So do _you_.”

“But this is for later.”

He raised an eyebrow, “But it’s for me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then why can’t I use it now?”

Jun grumbled and threw up his hands before finally forking over the gold coins and jabbing the kabob at Minghao. “Don’t blame me once you’re broke.”

“I will.” The man grinned as he took the kabob from Jun’s hands and blew on it. The food stop completed their second trip around port and they had seen just about all there was to be seen.

But instead of returning to the ship, the two meandered around for a bit before settling down on the sand of the beach by the docks. The light drizzle had stopped and the fog seemed to be clearing. Moonlight shimmered in the water as small waves formed and broke, reflecting both clouds and stars above.

It created quite a picture. The sand, slightly illuminated from the fires in the port behind them, meeting the water, silver crested with ripples of a frothy white or flashes of a deeper blue beneath the surface. The waves seemed to reach for the shore, rushing in before being dragged back by the call of the moon, their longing eternal. And conversely, the dunes of the shore were crafted by the waves, a few handfuls of sand coming loose from one side or the other, carried away with the receding tide.

It was a calming rhythm.

There, amid the dunes, Jun sat back, enjoying the lull of the waves. Minghao instead walked forward, taking one tentative step and then another, rolling up his trousers as he went.

The captain watched on from the beach, waves tickling the soles of his feet, and debated going in to bring the man back to shallow waters. But he didn’t move from his spot in the sand. Running side by side from angry pirates and arguing over a kabob aside, he’d noticed that Minghao was quieter than usual. No, not simply that. The normalcy between them during their jokes and laughter had receded, as if with the tide.

Jun wasn’t sure, but if he had to pick a word, it was like Minghao was more _distant_ than before.

The man was standing still with the water up to his thighs, head tilted up at the sky, with his eyes closed or open and gazing at the stars, Jun didn’t know. But he simply stood there and let the waves break against his skin, unmoving.

Like he was holding himself back.

Jun sighed deeply. Little did Minghao know, Jun was the one who should be holding himself back. A fondness settled over his features as his eyes followed the way the other man’s hand trailed across the surface of the water. It was the same way he had traced Minghao’s silhouette when the man was running in front of him. The way he had stolen glances at the other’s side profile on the rooftop. And gazing at the other’s back as he stood in the water now, thoughts of Jihoon’s chase and his captain duties pushed to the back of his mind, Jun wondered if it wasn’t actually he himself who had waded in too far.

Then Minghao turned around to make his way back, and Jun knew it was. It _had_ to be.

He could feel his chest tighten painfully with some bittersweet longing or other as he committed the man to memory. Those deft fingers. The dip of his collarbones. The way he swung his arms slightly as he walked. And of course, those _eyes_.

Jun was so done for.

As Minghao sat down beside him, leaning up to look at the stars, Jun wondered about a world where he wasn’t wearing his beloved captain’s hat, a pirate’s skull and bones so boldly emblazoned on it. It felt heavy on his head now, and Jun knew he couldn’t take it off, wouldn’t be able to face his first mate and the rest of his crew if he did, especially with Jihoon running around port taking on his duties for him, but it still made him wonder. Maybe if he’d stayed a sailor in the Queen’s Navy. Perhaps he would have met Minghao on one of his stays in town. Perhaps Minghao would have tried to swindle him. He would have succeeded, Jun thought.

Or maybe in a world where Minghao stayed in the castle, Jun might have met him at some official event. Would they have even talked?

He stared up aimlessly, trying to construct a world in which he ended up next to Minghao on the beach, staring up at the night sky together, with nothing to pull them apart and no pirate captain’s hat on his head. In his world, their hands almost touched.

 

~

 

Elsewhere in the city, spare gold obnoxiously heavy in his pouch, Jihoon tried to pin down the shadow he was following, twisting through crowds and pressing around corners with his back to the wall, careful not to be seen.

Said shadow flitted into an alleyway and Jihoon turned after it, catching a glimpse of that familiar blonde hair before it and its owner disappeared again.

“Goddamnit.” He picked up his pace, careful not to let the gold coins clink and give him away.

When the crew disembarked, Jihoon had to choose between three suspicious parties to follow. One, S. Coups. Two, the two crossdressing bodyguards. Three, the cook. He’d looked at the crew heading for the taverns, and in a split second, chosen the third. Jeonghan was the link between the other two, he thought, and perhaps he could get information on both from the chef.

But tip-toeing around port following the man, Jihoon became more interested in where he was going. It didn’t seem like the cook was headed toward any set destination with the ease of his stride, but at the same time, he never hesitated at a brothel window or wavered in front of tavern doors.

It was like he knew what he was searching for but not where to find it. What could he be looking for?

The shadow turned another corner and then mingled into the crowd on the streets. Jihoon grimaced in annoyance, pushing past a giggling group of prostitutes, their makeup caked onto eyelids and lips, dresses cut scandalously low as they tried to pull him towards something that resembled an inn.

Just as he thought he had gotten past them, a hand snaked up to his face from behind, ruffling his hair playfully with a coo of “How cute” and Jihoon drew his sword with a snarl, “Hands off or-”

But she only pulled him closer, and as the group gathered around him, Jihoon angrily sheathed his sword with a quick scan of the street. He had lost the shadow.

 

~

 

Jeonghan watched the first mate turn this way and that, clearly looking for someone in the streets. But he was on a tavern roof, waiting for the right moment to jump off and continue the chase.

He remembered his conversation with those two. Vernon and Seungkwan, or Boo, as the other called him. They had met up in the kitchen before disembarking for port, and the two were already discussing as he walked through the door:

_“She clearly wasn’t safe. Did you see that sailor?”_

_“They all ended up okay though and that guy was the only one who got hurt.”_

_“But still. He put her in danger and it’s been years since he even mentioned ransom. For all we know, he wants to keep her forever!”_

_The taller one pursed his lips, effectively ending the conversation as Jeonghan walked in. Still keeping his guard up, huh? But it didn’t matter, because Jeonghan knew what they wanted. All the cards were in his hands, and all he had to do was play them right-_

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the first mate was walking away. Time to resume the chase.

Jeonghan shook the memory from his head as he hopped down into the alley, letting the torches throw his shadow large against the wall for Woozi to see. As he walked, a devilish grin spread across his face. If the other two had made good on that promise, his plan was finally back into motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the slightly ominous title ^_^ As you probably have noticed, my updates will be getting irregular and probably less frequent as my summer break comes to an end. But don't worry! I will try to update as much/frequently as I can :)
> 
> Castor


	17. Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> School has taken up more time than I originally thought it would. Don't worry, I will definitely continue with this story, but updates will be much slower than before. Thank you all for your support and here's a little something Pollux made for the fic and to celebrate Junhao's MV ^_^
> 
> edit: apparently none of the image hosting sites let me do third-party hosting, my apologies. here's a link to Pollux's DeviantArt
> 
> Castor

https://k-kaerie.deviantart.com/art/Captain-of-Your-Heart-702732442


	18. Clouds Cleared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely readers,
> 
> I'm glad to say I'm finally back -and healthy lol my immune system needs to give me a break- with a new chapter. Before you read this chapter, please reread the previous chapter which is renamed to Caught in a Dream if you can because there were several large edits. But mostly, things are continuing and I'm trying to wrap up this story before the end of summer so look forward to regularish updates ^_^
> 
> For all my returning readers, I love you all and appreciate all your support and kind words <3 Thank you for being patient (for a whole year im so sorry) and I hope you'll like this chapter and the ones that'll follow. Take care of your health yourselves! :)
> 
> ~Castor
> 
> P.S. I might be deleting the chapter with the link to Pollux's fanart so just in case, the link is here: https://k-kaerie.deviantart.com/art/Captain-of-Your-Heart-702732442
> 
> P.P.S. I also added an excerpt to the end of ch5 if anyone wants to go that far back :)

The rain outside had long stopped, and the ship had returned to the open seas.

It was as if the night at port had been a dream, so different from reality. Back in a dress and wig onboard the ship as it broke free of the fog, Jun steering them to the next port, Minghao clutched the memories to his chest, reminding himself of the shimmer of moonlight over the water and the way the wind had danced through his hair as he ran from pirates, side by side with the captain.

He remembered how his heart had betrayed him, skipping a beat when the captain turned to face him on the roof of the inn, eyes gazing into his own, or almost stopping when he had turned back to the beach and seen the way Jun was watching him.

One perfect night.

_“Is that enough for you, Hao?”_

One of the voices in his head was back to taunt him but Minghao didn’t respond.

From his spot by the window, he could see the captain’s silhouette outside, still at the wheel. He knew that even if he tried to forget once in the village again, that silhouette would stay with him, as would that searching gaze. Not many had ever looked him in the eye for who he was, past all the masks to who he really was, without looking away, and Minghao had little reason to believe that would change once he was back. He almost laughed, to think, of all places, a few weeks aboard a pirate ship could ruin one for everyday life.

 _“Doesn’t seem like you want to let go,”_ the voice jeered.

But Minghao’s eyes lingered on the captain’s hat. Jun was a pirate captain first, and his obligation was to his crew. If Minghao stayed and put Jun’s role as a captain and a pirate on the line, he didn’t know what would happen. And though he couldn’t see through the other man, Minghao felt in his heart that Jun belonged to the sea.

As the sun peeked out from the horizon, Minghao shifted to look at Vernon and Seungkwan at the ropes of the far mast. Vernon had his back to the pirates and it looked like he had finished what he was supposed to do and was helping Boo.

Suddenly, one of the pirate’s words from the night before replayed in his head: “ _always together, those two_.” It was true; he rarely saw one without the other...

_“Well, Hao? Decisive much?”_

He told the voice in his head to fuck off and pointedly turned away from the window. His pendant was heavy against his chest, a reminder that his decision had already been made; he just needed to stick to it.

One perfect night was enough. It had to be.

 

~

 

At the wheel, compass and map by his side, Jun had made a decision of his own as well. The sun was rising, and he followed the streams of red and orange past the number of pirates setting the mast riggings on deck, over the bowsprit at the helm, and looked out over the open waters. High above the rolling waves, he could see the faint wisps of cirrus clouds. It felt to him as if the last time the sky and sea were so calm had been a very long time ago.

If the weather lasted, that would be best. The captain had already set the coastline they were headed toward, possible ports marked out. The closest one was only a day away. The furthest was ten if the wind favored them, fifteen if it didn’t. Each offered something the pirates needed: foodstuffs, rope, cloth, wood, rum, repair services, women, or unknowing targets sailing along on the high seas.

Jun had done the calculations. He knew he could extend the time it would take before they reached the next port; change the heading, wander the ocean, refusing to part with the warmth inside his quarters that the other man had unknowingly brought.

He also knew he wouldn’t.

What Jun would do was make it so that the next port they dock at would be as close to Minghao’s village as possible. He would send them home; it was the sole gift he could give.

The captain imagined the surprise that he hoped would be on the man’s face when they docked and he recognized the port. Minghao didn’t seem like the type to kiss goodbye -in fact, his crew returning to find the ship several bags lighter of hidden gold had a much higher possibility- but Jun could only hope. At the very least, he wanted to hear the man say his name one more time.

_“Goodbye, Minghao.”_

_“Goodbye, Jun.”_

Jun closed his eyes and sighed.

Before, he had loved the feeling of leaving port, the noisy turn of the gears as the anchor was raised and the ever so familiar smell of the sea, blown toward them by the wind. He’d loved to look out over the open seas and steer toward any point along the horizon, to watch the land shrink to a speck with no thought of when it would come back into view.

Now, he was looking forward to docking at a port. As Jun opened his eyes and turned back to his map, a sad smile drifted across his face. So much could change in such a short time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If y'all have any comments, feel free to leave them below or hmu on tumblr :) Thanks again and I hope it's been worth the wait!
> 
> ~Castor


	19. Treason Pt. 1

A few hours later, it was noon. A hazy warmth unfitting for the time of year had enveloped the ship, an omen of hotter days ahead.

On deck, Jihoon wiped at the sweat on his brow. Now that the clouds had decided to leave, the sun appeared directly overhead in full force, drying up any moisture that had been left in the air. It was hot, it was heavy, and he hated it. The first mate had already been in a bad mood after his fruitless chase around port, and the stagnant air only made it worse. Pacing up and down the wooden planks, it seemed to him like everyone had conveniently chosen this day to forget how to sail a ship.

“What are you? A fish?” Jihoon glared at one of the pirates, currently not coiling the ropes as he should be. “What’s so nice about the sky, huh? Close your goddamn mouth and stop staring, or I’ll close it for you-” he added with a snarl, “permanently.”

“And you!” He whirled on someone else. “Damn you the depths! Stay away from the rails or you’ll end up in Davy Jones’ Locker in no time.”

“Beelzebub ‘imself could hardly desire better company, aye mateys?”

“Aye!”

“Arr!”

The pirates roared at S. Coups’ joke and Jihoon glared at them. He might as well throw one of them overboard if it would get him some peace and quiet on deck.

“Mate, ain’t that rigging for the mizzenmast?”

Another one to throw overboard.

“Nay, you’ve no eye. It’s for the  _ main _ mast.”

“And you’ve a split tongue. It’s for the mizzenmast!”

“But the cap’n said-”

“Captain!”

Mouth twisted into a deep-set grimace, Jihoon was about to head below deck and leave the mess of a crew to the captain, when he saw a certain boy fumbling with ropes in the corner of his eye.

It was a relatively simple knot, the round turn with two half hitches, meant to be used to secure lines and a difficult knot to untie. The boy should know how to tie it. Hell, Jihoon had taught him himself when he first joined.

 

~

 

_ It had been day seven of being first mate for Jihoon when a pirate dragged a young boy in front of him, feet bare and clothes torn, shivering against the salty ocean wind. “Rotten stowaway,” the pirate sneered before leaving. _

_ Jihoon looked the runt over, eyes lingering on the telltale green and purples coloring his skin. Then he cursed at the pirate that had dragged the boy out of wherever he’d been hiding and gruffly handed the shivering child an old set of shirt and trousers. From then on, the boy was part of the crew. _

_ Cursed with arms the size of twigs, he wasn’t much good at typical pirate work like wielding a sword or pulling a rope against the wind but he was smart and his fingers were more nimble than a seamstress. The first knot that Jihoon had taught him, he’d mastered in one go, and seeing the triumphant gleam in his eyes as he finished his second, there was no stopping him after that. _

_ The other pirates would rather have their souls fried in hellfire than admit it, but beside Jihoon and Jun who’d had an actual education and some of the sailor-turned-pirates who’d learned proper knots in their previous occupations, he was probably the most reliable one on board when it came to tying a knot. _

 

~

 

Yet for some reason, the boy kept fumbling and retying the elementary knot in front of him. As the first mate closed in behind the boy, he complained under his breath, “One of the five knots to know. Only  _ five _ . Now everyone’s forgetting the basics, too?”

He cleared his throat, and the boy jumped a little.

“What is this sorry excuse for a knot?”

“I- I’m sorry.” The boy turned around, his eyes at the ground. “It’s just- the rope.”

Jihoon waited.

The boy tried again, “The rope, it’s-” He hesitated and then shoved his hands at the first mate. “It’s like this.”

Jihoon’s eyebrows rose despite himself. The rope looked like it had been shredded. Carefully taking it from the boy, Jihoon ran his fingers through the strands. There were too many to tell where one ended and the next began; no wonder the boy had trouble tying the knot. He glanced at the boy. “You didn’t do this.”

It was a statement. The boy nodded, finally meeting his eyes.

Jihoon sighed and hoisted the coil over his shoulder. “Come with me below deck. We’ll get a different one.”

 

~

 

Save for the groaning of someone bedridden in the crew’s quarters, it was quiet below. Making his way by touch to the coils of rope hung up against the hull, the first mate picked one out, and after making sure the ends weren’t frayed, handed it to the boy. “Back up you go, aye?”

“Aye.”

He watched the boy hurry halfway up the stairs and called behind him, “And tell Hook to go sweep the mess hall!” The hatch closed behind the boy with a thud.

Jihoon walked on along the hull, hands trailing the wood, feeling for the coils and other equipment stored below deck. With the storm and then docking, he hadn’t had the chance to perform his weekly maintenance, and now was as good a time as ever, especially with the shredded rope that looked suspiciously unlike the work of nature.

First, the basics. All coils of rope were in their respective places. None of them were frayed like the one looped around his shoulder, Jihoon noted. The backup sails were also all in decent condition. No rips, tears, or loose stitching. “Good.” He let go of the corner threads with a curt nod.

Next was down past the hold to the bilge to check the water level. He wrinkled his nose at the smell, but at least it seemed normal, no reason to pump dry. The first mate headed back up to do an inventory of foodstuffs, tools, and other useful materials onboard. As he tallied the counts of cannonballs, harpoons, and rations in a pocket notebook, he made sure to double check his numbers, especially when he moved on to the weapons.

Most of the knives and swords the pirates carried would be with them, but the larger ones…

“Someone’s spare longsword. Check.”

“Scimitar and katana. Check.”

“Two axes.”

Jihoon looked at one of them again before making another note. “One rusty.”

“Several spears and staffs, a pick, a crossbow...” He flipped back to his last inventory. “Let’s see. Longsword, scimitar, katana-  _ three _ axes?”

He frowned. A mace, a hammer, and a broadsword were missing as well, and he doubted that they had just grown legs and walked off or, better yet, that someone had decided today was bring-your-heavy-conspicuous-weapon-to-work day. There was always the possibility a pirate had brought the mace or axe to port and gotten too drunk to bring it back, but it was worth mentioning to the captain.

As shitty days went, something didn’t feel right about this one.


	20. Treason Pt. 2

The hatch closed behind Jihoon with a thud. Hand shielding his eyes, he waited for them to refocus to the light as he stepped onto the familiar wood planks. “No mercy, huh? Damn you, sun.”

The heat was just as bad as at noon. Jihoon kept his hand up as he scanned the deck, looking for anything out of place. Unfortunately, that was pretty much everything. Pirates standing too close to the rails for personal safety again, riggings left unattended, and weapons and shirts discarded in the heat. He cursed Jun yet again for talking him into being a pirate. Really, there was no common sense anywhere.

Especially with those two crossdressers. Jihoon eyed each of them suspiciously as he passed by and, not wanting to take any chances, growled at the louder one to put his back into it just in case.

“Are we bullying crewmembers again, Woozi?” The captain grinned as the first mate stopped next to him.

“I prefer to call it fulfilling my duties as first mate.”

He noted that the captain’s grin looked slightly forced but didn’t mention it.

“So how did your duties go?”

Jihoon glared at him, “Just as poorly as you’d expect, and don’t pretend like you can’t see it from up here. Shitty seamanship across the board. Someone could fall over the rails and I wouldn’t be surprised at this point. But anyways, the real reason I need to talk to you is-”

“Wait, give me a second.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes as Jun readjusted the course protractor. Then, out of curiosity, he looked over at the captain’s calculations.

“We’re going to dock  _there_?”

“Something wrong?”

Jihoon stared at Jun. There were multiple things wrong with docking at a non-pirate port, the first and foremost being the cannon fire that would surely welcome their skull and crossbones flag, but then he saw the look in the captain’s eyes and knew it had to do with that prisoner again. He sighed, “Nothing wrong. You’re going to owe me a vacation after all this is over though.”

The captain chuckled and Jihoon resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. “I’ll think about it. So what were you going to say?”

“As I was saying, below deck-”

There was the sound of something wet against wood and suddenly people were clamoring around deck.

“What the-”

Both the captain and first mate wrinkled their noses as another pirate ran to the rails and heaved overboard. Someone else ran below deck, probably for a bucket.

“Are you serious?”

Jihoon threw his hands up in exasperation. “First, no one can sail, and now everyone is casting up accounts?! Might as well feed all of them to the sharks instead of clean this up.”

He marched off and Jun called after him, “What about that thing you were sayin-”

Jihoon pinched his nose, “Forget it.” He looked at the scene in front of him. “Just, I better get that vacation.”

 

~

 

Luckily for him, most of the pirates had made it to the rails or to a bucket. Unluckily for him, now it probably smelled like shit below deck. It also looked like shit in front of him. He grimaced at the sight. Someone would need to clean it up.

“Stop gawking,” he growled at the ones that were just standing on the side, “and get back to work.”

“Aye, Woozi.”

Jihoon mentally groaned as most of them went back to doing just as sorry of a job as they were before. At least now he had a reason to split up two of the more suspicious ones on board. The rope, the missing weapons, and this...

“Hey you!” He beckoned for the louder of the two crossdressers, a hard glint in his eyes. “Get below deck and make sure no one’s spilling their innards there.”

“Me?” The man looked around, his eyes wide. “But-”

“No but’s.” Jihoon glared at him, “Would you rather be sleeping in the hold?” He tightened his hand on the hilt of his sword for emphasis.

“I-”

The other one cut in, “It’s alright, Boo. Go, I got things covered up here.”

The one called Boo nodded, only looking back halfway down the hatch, a worried expression on his face.

 

~

 

Jihoon left the louder one in the crew’s quarters and headed to the kitchen. With half the crew sick from some form of a stomach bug, the most obvious person to ask was the cook.

Just because Jeonghan had visited every corner of port before deciding to give up on whatever he had been looking for didn’t mean Jihoon had cleared him of suspicion. Every time he passed the cook in the mess hall, an inexplicable chill caused him to turn away, his hand hovering over his sword. Jihoon couldn’t trust him. Though why he might want to send half a dozen pirates heaving over the rails, Jihoon had no idea.

But as the familiar scents welcomed him in, there was no trace of that chill.

“Where’s the cook?” He demanded of the pirate in the kitchen, who turned around with a fright and immediately hid his hands behind his back.

“Uh, Jeonghan left,” the pirate mumbled, crumbs of a biscuit at the corner of his mouth.

Jihoon looked at him with one eyebrow raised, “And what are you doing in here?”

“Was helping him.”

“Uh huh.” The first mate scanned the kitchen for anything out of the ordinary. “Say, were his supplies today any different from normal?”

“His what?”

“His _supplies_. Ingredients. Food. What he uses. What he makes.”

Jihoon fought an incoming migraine as the pirate shook his head vigorously. “I’ll cut out your tongue if you’re lying.”

“Upon my soul,” the pirate protested. “I would taste a difference!”

He succumbed to the migraine.

 

~

 

As the captain buried himself in whatever navigation calculations he was doing at the helm, Minghao had watched as the first mate waved his hands around, pointed around deck, and then disappeared below after Seungkwan. Time had passed, and they hadn’t emerged, so the first mate had probably given Seungkwan some task down there. Vernon remained on deck, and from the way he was sloshing water against the wooden planks, it looked like the first mate had put him on deck clean-up duty.  

Minghao could see the man wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeves. Even under the burning sun, Vernon was still wearing his usual layers. Idiot, Minghao thought as he pressed his hand against the glass of the window, but he smiled.

“I’m sorry. Just wait a few more days.”

He let his hand drop and was about to turn away when he saw something weird. Vernon had stopped cleaning and was talking to a pirate. They seemed to be agreeing on something, and then Vernon handed his bucket to him. Minghao pressed against the glass for a better view.

The pirate took over Vernon’s job of sloshing water on deck, and Vernon was climbing up the rigging. Minghao craned his neck to follow him. It looked like he was on the main mast, but he didn’t stop at any of the sails. He just kept going up.

Minghao narrowed his eyes. Vernon kept going higher and higher past where he could see. The only place he could be headed was the crow’s nest.

What was he doing?

 

~

 

By the time Jihoon had clambered back on deck, most of the crew was either in the mess hall or heading down there. The sun had finally given up for the day as well, slowly sinking back into the ocean, its deep red and purples pooling at the horizon.

The captain had gone back inside after the heading had been set, leaving Jihoon to deal with everything on deck, not that there was much left. The crew’s quarters and the deck had both been wiped down, and aside from the chorus of groaning below from those infected, it seemed to have been a relatively harmless stomach bug.

Jihoon had even rechecked his inventory and found that an axe and hammer had mysteriously reappeared. Maybe he just missed them the first time around. Things were somewhat back to normal, and Jihoon prayed they would go back completely by tomorrow. That would be best.

And yet, something kept him at the wheel all night, eyes repeatedly scanning the deck for any abnormal movement, the coil of rope still looped over his shoulder. He had meant to throw it out, but a nagging feeling kept him from doing so. Absentmindedly picking at the shredded strands, Jihoon wished that tomorrow wouldn't get any worse.


	21. Treason Pt. 3

Morning had come and nothing out of the ordinary had happened, except that now Jihoon was left with a smarting pain for his troubles. The first mate gently rolled his shoulder, wincing as he massaged the sore points with his other hand. He had been too tense at night, he chided himself with a rare upward curve of his lips.

Small grumbles and gruff voices broke the silence on deck as several pirates clambered out of the hatch for their morning duties, and Jihoon allowed himself a yawn. Some of them would be changing the sails or checking the rigging; they would be on deck throughout the day to maintain the wind in their sails. One of the lighter ones would be going up the masts. The first pirate without an eyepatch or worrisome habits of drinking on the job or falling asleep at the wheel would replace Jihoon as helmsman, and he would finally be able to get some rest-

His eyes locked on the pirate climbing out of the hatch. That one would do just fine.

“Hey you!” Jihoon beckoned him to the helm.

The pirate stopped a safe distance away. “Aye, Woozi?”

“You’re helmsman.”

“But-”

“No buts.” Jihoon glared, a familiar headache starting to throb. He massaged his temples and ignored the crestfallen expression on the pirate’s face. It was like this every time. Not like just standing at the helm was even difficult. He sighed, “Don’t touch the wheel or I’ll skin you alive. Anything happens, get me. If it’s serious, get the captain.”

He was about to turn away when the pirate opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask a question and then closed it again.

Jihoon tapped his foot in irritation and resisted the temptation to tell the man that he had no more brains than a sea turtle. It would be an insult to the turtle. “Serious means man overboard, ship on fire, masts have fallen, another ship is spotted, a monster appears, you see a ghost, or Neptune himself comes to smite us-”

He rolled his eyes at the pirate’s gaping mouth. “I’m joking. You have a head, don’t you? Learn to use it.”

The pirate snapped his mouth shut and gave him a resentful glare. The first mate made to turn away a second time and was stopped again by a meaningful look.

Jihoon scowled back. He disliked superstitions with a burning passion. It wasn’t as if stepping on board with the right foot or wearing gold hoop earrings was actually going to ward off evil, but he wanted to get to his hammock, so he played along. One knock against the wood helm for good luck, a second for emphasis. “Happy now?”

The pirate nodded.

“Good. I’ll leave you to it.”

For the third time, Jihoon was about to turn away. No more opened mouths or meaningful looks stopping him. He was finally going to leave the helm and hurry below deck before anything else could happen to get his long-awaited rest, or so he’d hoped.

The first mate had taken one step when a scream pierced the air above them. He jerked his head up just as someone plummeted down.

 

~

 

Jun bolted up.

“We’re being haunted!”

“It’s a curse! Neptune is coming for us!”

“I want off!”

The yells outside mixed together into a warning loud enough to wake him if the crash hadn’t. The captain only had a second to mentally curse the gods for not allowing him his peaceful last few days before port. Then he snatched his hat and sword from the ground, scanned the room to make sure Minghao was still there and unharmed, and ran outside.

The deck was in chaos. Screams of ghosts and the devil himself filled the air. Pirates were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, several with swords brandished. Jun’s heart stopped for a second when he realized Jihoon wasn’t at the wheel, but then he saw him in the crowd and hurriedly waded forward.

There was a circle of pirates around Jihoon and Jun tried to get a better view of whatever had happened as he walked closer, his heartbeat loud in his ears. It couldn’t be, he told himself. Jihoon couldn’t be hurt. He couldn’t. There was no way-

He dodged as a pirate careened around him. If only he could see, but the crowd was blocking him. He pushed closer.

He barely saw a glimpse of Jihoon’s grim expression before another pirate blocked his view. “Captain! Captain! The devil will have us, what do we do?!”

He grit his teeth, “Bloody hell, get out of my way.”

Another pirate joined in, “But captain! ‘Tis the work of a ghoul-”

“I said get out of my way!” Jun bellowed, and finally, a quiet fell over the deck. The ones running stopped to stand still. Ignoring the shock on the crew’s faces, Jun strode forward as the crowd parted in front of him.

The first thing he saw was the broken wood board. Two of them. The one that had broken underneath the pirate and the one strewn to the side. Then the blood.

“Jihoon, what happened here?” He asked softly, almost a whisper.

An expression of relief flickered across Jihoon’s face as he looked up and saw Jun, and the captain fought the urge to pull his first mate from the mess and make sure he was okay. “Captain,” he acknowledged Jun, the reminder obvious.

“Woozi,” Jun corrected himself, heartbeat calming somewhat. “What happened here?”

“He was supposed to go up to the crow’s nest today,” Jihoon jerked his chin at the man splayed out in front of him, leg bent at an unnatural angle, “but the board gave and he fell.”

Jun looked up with disbelief. Sure enough, the crow’s nest displayed a gaping hole where sturdy wood had been the day before. “How is that possible?”

“It’s the work of the devil,” one of the pirates whispered in horror.

“We’ve been cursed!”

“Mark me words, we’ll be going down with the tide tonight.”

No, it wasn’t the work of the devil. The storm hadn’t been bad enough to rot the wood, and with the way the boards had broken, that wasn’t what had happened anyways. Jun’s eyes narrowed as he noted the blunt edges at the ends of what remained of the crow’s nest. Those were definitely human-made, most likely by an axe.

Taking the multiple dents in the wood and the splintering at the corners, he had an inexperienced saboteur on board. Jun locked eyes with Jihoon, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I am,” Jihoon replied, his jaw set firmly.

Jun nodded, a fire blazing in his eyes. All eyes were on him as he stood up straight. “Listen up, crew. This is not the work of some ghost or demon, and I’ll slit the veins on the arm of anyone who dares say that again. You want off? Be my guest, the rails are right here. But if you don’t want to drown today, you’ll listen to me. Understand?”

There was a chorus of disgruntled aye’s.

“Good.” The man lying down was coming to and he’d started moaning from the pain. Quickly scanning the crowd, the captain picked out a few pirates. “You and you and you, carry him below deck to a hammock. You in the back, use some spare boards and rope or sail to make a splint. You and you,” he glared as the pirate tried to shift behind someone else, “yes you, you’re to make the deck spotless or his blood won’t be the only one staining it. You over there and you, get someone to cover your duties on deck. You’ll be fixing the crow’s nest. Everyone else, back to work. Am I clear?”

More disgruntled aye’s.

Each of the pirates went to his post. As the three pirates carried the man away, Jun heard a snippet of “the devil himself” and grimaced. The crew’s discontent wouldn’t go away with only a simple threat, but that was an issue for another time. Most of the others had cleared away, only leaving the captain, Jihoon, and blood specking the dented wood between them.

The captain looked his first mate in the eye, and saw a fire that matched his own. Good, they needed that flame. This saboteur would not be allowed to intervene in Minghao’s safe passage onboard  _ The Maria _ these remaining few days.

“Woozi.” He had one last order. “You will find out who did this.”

Jihoon nodded.

“Aye, aye, captain.”


	22. Treason Pt. 4

Jun had gone below deck to interrogate the injured pirate, but all he got out of it were moans and then screaming as the other pirates tried to tie together a splint and accidentally scraped raw skin.

He had no doubt the pain was real. No one in their right mind would fallen from such heights on purpose, meaning that the pirate hadn’t known about the sabotage. At least that was one person he could eliminate, Jun thought to himself sarcastically. He hated to have to suspect even the victim, but with so little to go off of, he could only go through an airtight process of elimination.

By all accounts, the boards had been fine a week ago. Hell, Jihoon had been up there recently to go get Hook untangled during the storm; it just didn’t make sense, and in a case where it seemed impossible for anyone to be the culprit, everyone then had to have a possibility of being the culprit.

It was a horrifying prospect. Jun stared at the wood around him for a good minute then headed back up. Hopefully, Jihoon had found something helpful.

 

~

 

Precariously clinging to the remnants of the crow’s nest, Jihoon frowned deeply. The situation was worse than he’d thought.

As expected, he had found messy axework in the shallow gashes and splinters near where the wood had broken, an indication of someone inexperienced. That ruled out the pirates who owned the axes. It was a simple deduction, and Jihoon had been about to shimmy down the mast when one set of gashes caught his eye.

He pulled himself back up and traced his fingers through the grooves. He did the same to one of the others for comparison, and his frown deepened. The first gash was significantly deeper.

Jihoon paused to think.

Climbing up to the crow’s nest without attracting attention was already a feat in and of itself, let alone breaking a board _and_ climbing back down. If it was difficult for one person, it was practically impossible for a pair. The gashes had to have been made by one person, but then why the difference in depth?

There were few explanations, none of them good. What he needed were more clues.

“Woozi, matey! You’re in me way!”

The first mate looked down the mast and scowled. Clearly only one of the pirates that were supposed to be fixing the crow’s nest was taking his job seriously. He cupped his hands and yelled down, “Go get yer partner first, you scalawag!”

The pirate seemed to have heard him, because he disappeared. Satisfied, Jihoon swung his legs over the side and started climbing down. He was determined to scour every nook and cranny on the entire ship if need be to find whoever was behind the recent happenings, and it was starting to look like he needed to.

Halfway down the mast, he stopped.

The first mate couldn’t hear the pirates on deck with how far up he was, but he could see the way they sneakily glanced at the captain after whatever they said. Someone even threw salt over their shoulder.

Jihoon groaned. He didn’t have time for this; he needed to find more clues.

Rung by rung, he picked up his pace. As he got closer to the deck, Jihoon growled and almost unsheathed his sword when his foot got stuck on one of the ropes, but he wrenched it out and continued down, faster, faster.

 

~

 

Perhaps Jihoon had been trying to race the missing weapons below deck. If he had, he failed. Where empty air had been the day before, the missing axes, mace, hammer, and broadsword had returning, propped against the hull as if taunting him. He stomped back up the stairs, axe in hand.

Back on board under the burning sun, it looked like the captain was asking members of the crew about the incident. Jihoon scanned the pirates’ faces. Boredom, confusion, fear, annoyance, and hints of scorn. He brought his hand to the hilt of his sword. Not a good mix.

“Who was supposed to go up to the crow’s nest yesterday?”

Several pirates shrugged. One of them pointed at the one next to him. “He was!”

“Lies!” The pirate spit at him. “I ain’t stepped foot up there.”

“Then who did?”

“He did!”

“Bloody hell! Did not!”

“Yer sweatin’, liar!”

“‘Tis the _sun_ , nimwit!”

“Wasn’t there a rotation?” Jun growled.

“A what?”

Of course they hadn’t used it. They were pirates. They were pirates, and one of them was determined to sabotage their ship, seemingly before they could dock at port.

A familiar face was looking out the window of the captain’s quarters. The prisoner. For a second, Jihoon wondered if the sabotage was related to that man but shook the idea from his head. The timing was just uncanny.

And it was a strain for Jun. Jihoon looked at the scene in front of him and then back at the prisoner. He remembered the pain in the captain’s voice when he’d asked if wanting a few more days was selfish and cursed Jun for the umpteenth time for not falling in love with a prostitute instead. Though, slowly, watching the pirates respond to the captain’s questions with half-assed answers, he grit his teeth. If a few more days of peace were what Jun needed to be happy, then a few more days of peace Jihoon would give him, the crew and its captain be damned.

He took another concerned look at the pirates in front of them. They were getting unruly.

Hurriedly, he intervened, striding up next to the captain and shoving the axe at the crowd. “Can’t remember anything before today, huh? You lot got no more brain than a sea turtle, and at least they live longer. New question. Whose is this?”

No hands went up.

The first mate tried again, “Whoever owns an axe is innocent. Whose is this?”

More than half the hands went up. Mathematically impossible, but at least they had turned their attention away from the captain. Jihoon turned to Jun, “I’ll take over from here, captain.”

Jun looked at him in surprise, and Jihoon whispered, “I saw the prisoner in the window. You should ask if he saw anything.”

The captain mulled over it and then nodded, patting Jihoon on the back. “Good idea, I’ll leave you in charge then. Fill me in after dinner.”

“Aye, captain.”

He watched Jun disappear behind the doors to his quarters and rearranged his expression before turning back to the crew. S. Coups stood suspiciously in the middle. “Alright, you cretins, let’s try again. This time, everyone who isn’t working, I want to see you test this axe.”

There was quite a bit of mumbling and sudden finding of tasks to do before one of the unlucky ones stepped forward and Jihoon handed him the axe and some driftwood.

Thunk. “Next!”

Thunk. “Next!”

Thunk. “Next!”

Thunk. “Next!”

Thunk. “Next!”

For a while, the noise of metal hitting wood drowned out the previous complaints of ghosts and demons. Above them, the sun had moved about an inch in the sky and Jihoon almost hoped the day would pass like this before someone interrupted.

“Waste of time,” someone murmured in the back.

Jihoon raised an eyebrow and motioned for the pirate holding the axe to stop. A quiet fell over the crew again as he scanned for the voice. “What was that? Care to repeat what you just said?”

“He said this is a waste of time.” S. Coups stepped forward and the pirates around him nodded eagerly.

“Oh? And why is that?”

“If that-” S. Coups jerked his chin at the crow’s nest, “was caused by a ghost, obviously you won’t be able to find the culprit among us.”

His cronies nodded along, whispering about the ship being haunted.

“A _ghost_ , huh?” Jihoon gestured for the axe to be handed to S. Coups, eyes daring him to refuse. “You just earned yourself the privilege of going next.”

The pirate shrugged, accepted the axe and swung.

Thunk. The axe was buried in the wood, close enough to Jihoon to have trimmed his shirt if he had been an inch or two on the left. He didn’t flinch. “Next!”

“Now _S. Coups_ is a real pirate!”

Thunk. “Next!”

“Ha! As if the culprit could be one of us.”

Thunk. “Next!”

“A plague seize anyone who doesn’t believe in ghosts!”

Jihoon grimaced.

Thunk. “Next.”

He ignored the whispering on deck and snuck a glance behind him at the closed doors. Boredom, confusion, fear, annoyance, scorn. He could take any of their measly insults for the next few days, just as long as they were not directed at the captain.

 

~

 

“Did you see anyone go up to the crow’s nest?”

Jun could’ve sworn that Minghao had tightened his grip on his pendant. He furrowed his eyebrows and repeated the question.

“I did,” the man replied slowly, “you mean yesterday, don’t you?”

“Yeah, yesterday. Did you see who it was?” Jun leaned in; the hope in his voice was obvious.

Minghao shook his head. “Sorry, I couldn’t really tell who it was. Just looked like any of the pirates in your crew. Sorry.”

The captain sighed and shifted back. It would’ve been too good to be true, he reminded himself. “That’s alright,” he smiled at Minghao, “I’m going to go back on deck. If you see anything else, anything at all, please tell me.”

An unreadable expression passed over Minghao’s face, and then his gaze softened. “I will. Take care.”

At another time, Jun would have joked that Minghao was the one who needed to take care, but that was another time. Hand gripping the frame of the door before he left his quarters, the laughter in his eyes had been consumed by a smoldering fire. He remembered asking Jihoon “to leave or not to leave” so many days ago and was now resolutely choosing to leave. He needed to if he wanted to find the saboteur and ensure Minghao’s safe arrival in port.

Jun opened the doors and sighed as the sunlight enveloped him. There was another quote from boarding school he liked.

“This too shall pass.”

Only a few more days.

 

~

 

After a disastrous afternoon on deck, Jihoon walked into a disastrous dinner below. Salt was spilled all over, forming a thin sheet over the tables and floorboards. Even before he was close enough to see the pirates huddled together, he could hear them and their hushed hisses that the ship was haunted and that the woman on board was to blame; after all, everyone knew that having a woman on board was bad luck.

There was a chorus of agreement on their rotten luck to be on _The Maria_ and some wails of wanting to jump ship. He even heard a rumor about himself; according to them, he trimmed his fingernails as a tribute to Prosperine and that had incurred the wrath of a jealous Neptune. Then let them talk, he thought. But when Jihoon walked in with his plate and sat down, they all went quiet.

Everyone skirted around his table. Barely anyone ate, and most of them stared at him, the hostility obvious on their faces. Some touched their tattoos or earrings for reassurance, as if warding off evil. It felt as if the air in the mess hall had stopped flowing.

After what felt like an hour, Jihoon got up, not bothering with his plate, and left.

 

~

 

He’d gone to the kitchen.

Jeonghan was there this time, no stealing pirate in sight. Jihoon got straight to the point: “Are they avoiding me because of that rumor?”

“Yep.” The cook grinned.

Jihoon scowled. “Who started the rumor?”

“Who do you think?”

The cook was leaned against the counter, relaxed despite the sword in Jihoon’s hand, and his eyes were blank even as his lips smiled. Jihoon swore and stepped forward, “You always were trouble.”

“Nuh uh, not this time.” Jeonghan got up and moved to his cutting board. “This time it’s the other one.”

“S. Coups?”

“That’s the one, unusual, aye?”

Jihoon agreed for once. Even if the cook was notorious for spreading rumors, he at least sometimes told the truth, and it _was_ unusual for S. Coups to have started such a rumor about Jihoon. If anything, it bordered on treason.

Jihoon’s eyes narrowed. Now that he had a target to focus on, he wouldn’t let him out of his sight. He would need to keep S. Coups away from the others tomorrow, and well, once he had the man where he wanted...Jihoon cracked his knuckles. For now, he would go back to the mess hall to make sure the crew didn’t try anything rash.

Before the first mate left, he gave Jeonghan a warning, “If I ever hear a rumor about Jun, I will personally come back here and use your blood to warm my rum. Understand?”

The cook only laughed.

 

~

 

The captain hadn’t come back since he said he was going to see the first mate. Outside, the sun and sunk past the horizon, leaving a cover of darkness sporadically interrupted by the quiver of a candlelight on deck.

Jun’s quarters mirrored that darkness. All lights had been extinguished, and the shadow that would have otherwise been visible next to the window was invisible under the cloak of the night. Minghao was pacing as close to the glass as he could, muttering under his breath for either Vernon or Seungkwan to hurry the hell up and come back up for deck duty.

Hand gripping his pendant, the lie he told the captain echoed in his head.

It’d tasted wrong on his tongue but he’d forced it out. He couldn’t tell Jun that Vernon had been the last one in the crow’s nest.

_“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”_

Wouldn’t. After all, he was probably the reason why. There was no other explanation that would lead to those two resorting to such methods.

Minghao bit his lip and stopped when someone came out of the hatch. It wasn’t them. He kept pacing. Vernon and Seungkwan themselves wouldn’t do anything more drastic, but with the panic they were stirring up, he didn’t know. Minghao traced the curve of his pendant as he paced. He hoped to settle this without involving the captain.

_“That’s right. Junnie will still be captain after you leave, Hao. You don’t want to ruin it for him, right?”_

Minghao steeled himself as someone else came out of the hatch, willing it to be one of them. The silhouette came closer, and the candlelight briefly passed over his face. It was Vernon.

Minghao could suddenly hear his heart beating as Vernon walked closer, patrolling the helm. Closer, closer-

He knocked on the glass twice.

The silhouette outside stopped for a second and Minghao pressed against the window. But then it kept walking. Minghao’s face fell and he knocked again, louder.

“Psst! Psst! Hey, Vernon!”

The silhouette stopped again, this time backtracking next to the window. Vernon looked both ways before turning to him. “Minghao! Is it really? We’ve missed you so much, I can’t believe-”

Minghao shushed him, propping the window open an inch wider. “Me, too. Now come closer to the window. I need to talk to you.”

“Okay? What is it?”

Minghao pressed as close as possible, keeping his voice to a whisper, “You’ve been trying to get me out, right? The thing is-”

“Hey, you! What are you doing over there!” It was the captain. Turning away, Minghao cursed Jun’s timing.

“Nothing!” Vernon stepped away from the window. “Just patrolling!”

“That so? Get back to deck then!” The voice came closer.

“Sorry, Hao. I’ll try to come back,” Vernon whispered before walking off.

Minghao watched his silhouette disappear in the darkness and started pacing again. Every fifty or so steps, he would see a glimpse of Vernon, but every fifty-first, it would recede. Jun was still outside, and it didn’t seem like he was going to sleep tonight.

After losing count of his steps, Minghao considered asking the captain for help but decided against it. The situation wasn’t too serious yet, and knowing Seungkwan and Vernon, it shouldn’t get more dangerous.

_“And if it does?”_

Minghao pushed the thought from his mind. If they could just get past these last few days, the ship would reach port and it wouldn’t matter.

He watched the silhouette recede into the darkness again and quietly closed the window.

 

~

 

In the pitch black of night, Jun was still keeping watch at the helm.

He noticed that the lights were out inside his quarters and assumed that Minghao had gone to sleep. Sighing softly, he willed his feelings to pass through the wooden doors and reach the man inside. “I’ll get you home safe. I promise.”

Though, his promise was looking more difficult by the minute. He had found Jihoon in his hammock, and after some pestering, Jihoon had updated him on everything since the shredded rope the day before up to the inconclusive tests he’d had the crew conduct with the axe.

Jun had left so his first mate could sleep, but as he thought about it more, it didn’t look good. When Jihoon had mentioned the differing depths of the axe cuts, he had faltered slightly before saying he wasn’t sure on the reason why. Jun knew Jihoon didn’t want to think it, but most likely explanation for the difference in depths was a difference in time, the heavy blow had been struck first days ago to weaken the wood in preparation, the multiple light gashes had been recent to make sure they would break under the next person who tried to climb onto the crow’s nest.

The broken plank had to have taken time, so then the length of time that all of this had been planned...

He clutched the wheel, the palm of his hand turning red and raw as the night wore on. What could be the end goal of such actions?

 

~

  
The waves rolled against the hull lazily, the moonlight shimmered in patterns, and in the darkness of the night, each preoccupied with the uncomfortable beating of his own heart, whether asleep or awake, whether on deck or below, not a single person onboard noticed that the hatch to the hold, which should have been closed, was now ajar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies,
> 
> Thank you for continuing with this story and with me ^_^ I will start dating the chapters accurately so you have a better sense of my update patterns (weekly if I can continue to do so). I am back in school and I did not finish the entire work during summer as I'd hoped but I have finished up until a very important point so look forward to routine updates till then!
> 
> Castor


	23. Treason Pt. 5

No one noticed until the afternoon, and as the clock ticked down to then, Jihoon’s day only got worse.

“Did I say you were finished wiping the rails?”

“Well no, but-”

Jihoon positioned himself between S. Coups and the other pirates. He shoved a finger at the pirate, “You’re not done ‘till _ I _ say so. Now get to it before I tear out your tongue and feed it to the sharks.”

The man didn’t move.

“Well? Should I go get the chum bucket?”

He watched the man’s eyes flicker between him and the water, considering his options. Jihoon followed his gaze and stared right back at him, unblinking. The pirates beside him were watching the exchange just as intently, and Jihoon could feel their eyes like daggers in his back.

The heat was back and with a vengeance. It hung over them in the air like the sun almost directly above, an uncomfortable weight pushing in all directions. A bead of sweat had formed at his brow. Finally, S. Coups spit on the floorboard in front of Jihoon and stalked off.

The first mate turned back to the rest of the crew, several of them sneering at him. “Less chitchatting, more working,” he scowled back, “or you’ll be joining the fish in the water, too.”

As they turned back to their jobs, cursing under their breaths, Jihoon let out the breath he had been holding. He hadn’t imagined it would be so difficult keeping S. Coups on tasks away from everyone else with only his authority, but he refused to involve the captain, who was checking their heading at the helm and glanced every so often at the pirates on deck and then at the doors closed behind him.

A few more minutes to noon.

He let his hand drop from the hilt of his sword. S. Coups looked like he was wiping down the rails again despite the gleam of the wood from the last ten times Jihoon had told him to. On deck, the broken boards had been fixed up and the blood had been wiped clean. Jihoon looked up and sighed.

The only thing left was the crow’s nest, still unusable. He could only hope that after that too was fixed, the problems they were having on board would come to an end, but the heavy feeling in his stomach told him otherwise.

The sun had moved directly overhead.

Hand shielding his eyes, Jihoon scanned the deck for any abnormalities and found four. One of the missing pirates was accounted for by the one with the broken leg groaning below deck. Hook was probably back in the kitchen. The other two may have simply decided to slack off underneath the scorching heat, but the part that made him swear out loud was that one of the crossdressers was missing.

The first mate glanced at the captain, still engrossed in his calculations. He wouldn’t tell him for now. Instead, he quietly walked over next to the boy as he cleaned the rust off of a dagger and tapped the boy on the shoulder.

“Woozi?”

“Not here.” Jihoon kept his voice low, “Come with me.”

He turned around and walked a good distance from the main mast, far enough he shouldn’t be able to be heard by the closest pirate. The boy tucked the dagger away and obediently followed.

Jihoon checked again to make sure no one was around before looking the boy in the eye. “I need you to do something without getting caught.”

The boy tilted his head to the side and Jihoon continued, “Go check every level below deck. See anything unusual, tell me. Anyone asks, you’re just looking for something. Can you do that?”

The boy nodded.

Jihoon jerked his head at the hatch. “Go.”

 

~

 

The boy hurried past the muffled moaning all the way down to the bilge. The first mate had entrusted him - _ him _ !- with a job, and he didn’t want to disappoint. He planned to work his way back up thoroughly floor by floor.

Pinching his nose, he peeked in the bilge and then slammed it closed. The stench was worse than their quarters. Nothing looked out of place among the bare hooks and crates, excepting the ones that cook had marked off for rations and some half-filled barrels of spices, little specks of gold peeking out underneath.

The boy’s eyes widened and he reached to cover the spices with hay and rations but paused, hand in air. He bit his lip and shifted from side to side. What would the first mate think of him doing this? Woozi hadn’t told him to. Chances were, this was one of Woozi's stashes. It being something Woozi wanted hidden, he wanted to help the first mate keep it that way.

The boy reached forward then stole his hand back. He reminded himself that Woozi hadn’t told him to.

And it wasn’t like Woozi to leave his gold out in the open. The first mate must’ve had his own reasons. The boy put back the hay and rations and nodded to himself with a hopeful smile.

Carefully roaming around the hold, he paid attention to the smallest details from each nail and bolt to the way the wood creaked against his light frame. It was the only sound down in the hold.

His breath caught unexpectedly, and the boy turned slowly on his heel, a cold feeling worming its way through his chest.

He had been too concentrated on checking the miniscule parts that he had made a glaring mistake. The rumble of blood rushing to his head drowned out the silence in the hold, and gaping at the empty cell, the opened lock swaying with the ship, the boy remembered that it should not have been silent in the hold after all.

The rat was gone.

The boy ran up the stairs, rushing past the kitchen, the mess hall, the gun deck, the crew’s quarters and everywhere else he was supposed to search straight toward the last hatch. He had to get back on deck.

“Whatcha running for, runt?” One of the slackers was calling after him. “Hey! Ignoring me? Flog off then!”

The boy whispered a quick sorry to the first mate for not following all of his directions, squeezed his eyes shut, and kept running until the hatch handle was in his hand.

 

~

 

Vernon had been leaning against the hull in the crew’s quarters when he’d heard the pirate yell and then seen the boy run up to the deck.

The boy knew. That meant the bad-tempered first mate would find out soon. Whether the first mate would keep it quiet though…well, he didn’t like it, but the result wouldn’t change. Vernon stood up and followed the boy’s footsteps up the stairs, taking long confident strides.

 

~

 

Jun hadn’t noticed the first time when Jihoon had disappeared with the boy, but he did notice when the boy ran on deck like he was possessed and headed straight for his first mate.

He paused his hand over the steering wheel.  The boy looked visibly distraught, and when Jihoon turned to block them from the view of the other pirates, he and Jihoon made eye contact for a second and the first mate subtly shook his head. Jun furrowed his eyebrows. It wasn’t like Jihoon to keep something from him.

They were still talking in hushed tones. The boy’s expression went from panic to worry to only a nervous tapping of his fingers against his leg. Jihoon said something, nodded, and the boy left.

Jihoon turned back to the rest of the pirates like nothing had happened. Jun frowned and made to go down from the helm, but Jihoon saw him and shook his head again. 

Not once, but twice now. What could Jihoon want to keep quiet?

The captain found out a second later along with everyone in the crew when one of Minghao’s friends, Vernon he was pretty sure, ran onto the deck and yelled, “The rat is gone!”

Chaos ensued.

This time there was no convincing the pirates that they were not haunted. The ones with salt starting sprinkling it with a fervor. Several others drew their swords. Some looked afraid, others angry, some hateful, others resentful. Jun took a deep breath and walked onto deck briskly. “Everyone calm down.”

It had no effect.

Jun tried again, louder, “Everyone calm down!”

It worked this time.

Taking advantage of the short moment of quiet, Jun pulled two pirates randomly in front of the crew. He pointed to one of them, hoping in hindsight that the man didn’t have an eyepatch, “You’re helmsman.” He pointed to the other, “You make sure everyone’s doin’ their jobs, aye?” 

The captain didn’t wait for an answer. Turning on his heel, he headed straight to the hatch, walking past Jihoon’s darkened expression. “Woozi, with me.”

Behind them, the chaos erupted again.

 

~

 

“Damn it.” Jihoon punched the hull.

The rat really was missing.

Jun stood outside the empty cell, eyebrows furrowed and a question on his mind. The rat could either be hiding on board or he was already long gone, it didn’t really matter at the minute. The person they needed to find was the one who’d let him out.

The probability that a member of the crew helped the rat escape out of camaraderie was zilch. Jun was almost certain this was the work of the saboteur, but why? How did this play into their plans? What was their motive?

Behind him, Jihoon had stomped to where they kept the ring of keys and swore.

“The key is missing.”

“Shit.”

Jun ran his fingers through his hair. They shouldn’t have left the ring in the open with what was going on. He was about to tell Jihoon to hold onto it when he saw the first mate.

Jihoon’s hands were clenched into fists, and his back was ramrod straight. Jun could see the veins in his neck. Even the grimace on his face looked forced as he turned to Jun, “Alright, you go back, I’ll find the key.”

Jun narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean? I’m going with you.”

“I found this. I can deal with it.”

Jihoon had put the emphasis on ‘I.’

Jun just stared at him, mouth open. He had no idea what to respond with, so he kept staring at Jihoon as if waiting for him to take it back. When it became obvious he would not, Jun whisper-yelled at his first mate, “I’m the captain!”

“And  _ you _ said that  _ I _ ’ll find the person who’s doing all of this. I can do it.” Jihoon stared right back at him unapologetically. He crossed his arms. “Just let me do this.”

“Why does it matter who does it? Shouldn’t we both be doing it? I don’t-”

Jun blinked.

Slowly, he staggered back a step as if the weight of what he was realizing had pushed him. “Jihoon… you’ve been trying to keep me from doing anything these last few days on purpose, haven’t you?”

His first mate looked away. A fist clenched around Jun’s heart. As the scenes came together in his mind, his voice rose, “First, you don’t want me on deck, next, you won’t tell me what’s going on, and now, this has happened, and you just want me to go quietly back to my quarters? I don’t understand, this isn’t like you. From the rope to the crow’s nest, we both know this is bigger than someone traipsing around drunk and unlocking a door! Why don’t you want me involved on my own damn ship?”

He stopped, breathless, and looked to Jihoon for an answer. His first mate was still looking away, arms crossed firmly across his chest. Jun deflated slightly, his shoulders hunched. When he finally spoke again, his voice was almost a whisper.

“Don’t you trust me?”

Jihoon’s eyes were on him in a flash. “Of course I trust you, nimwit!”

“Then why?” Jun demanded.

Jihoon uncrossed his arms and brought them down to his sides. “Jun, I’m your first mate.” He made a strangled noise, “Bloody hell, I’m your friend.” Jihoon glared at him and Jun understood what was left unsaid:  _ “It’s what I need to do.” _

Jun stepped forward and reached out his hand, “Then let’s go, together.” 

“For the last time, don’t be such a fucking idiot!”

“What do you mean?”

Jihoon glared at him, and this time it was a real glare. His hands were clenched into fists at his side, and if Jun hadn’t known better, he might’ve thought Jihoon was holding himself back from punching him. He swallowed.

“Jihoon?” Jun stepped forward again, his hand dropped to his side. “What are you trying to say?”

His first mate only clenched his fist tighter. An uneasy feeling twisted around in Jun’s chest. He tried to search for the answer in Jihoon’s eyes, only to find that Jihoon wasn’t really looking at him again, seemingly caught in a torment of his own. Somewhere in the back of Jun’s mind, he wondered how long Jihoon had been carrying this by himself, whatever  _ this _ was. Then the trance broke.

Jihoon looked Jun in the eye.

“Just answer me honestly. Are you a captain first or a human first?”

Jun opened his mouth but no sound came out.

The little air there was in the hold seemed to have slowed. His captain’s hat weighed down heavily on his head. Jun knew what Jihoon would answer, but it wasn’t the same. “I can’t just stand by and do nothing!”

“For fuck’s sake! There’s a limit to how selfless you can be!”

“I’m not being selfless!” Jihoon gave him a weird look. “Isn't it selfish just keeping him here?”

“But you’re never with him.”

“But he’s  _ here _ .” Jun repeated, “He’s here.”

He stared at Jihoon as if daring his first mate to disagree again, and Jihoon stared back. The air seemed to meander around them in no hurry, following the directions of their gazes back and forth. After a full minute, Jihoon threw his hands in air. “Fine! You win,” he narrowed his eyes and grumbled, “like always.”

The harshness in his voice had left. Jihoon unclenched his fist and began massaging his head instead. That was Jihoon for ‘guess who’s the source of my headache?’ “I’m introducing you to some prostitutes at the next pirate port, count on it.”

Jun finally laughed, the tenseness in the air dissipating. He closed the gap between them easily and placed a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder. He knew the man worried for him. “Thank you, Jihoon.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” Their eyes locked, Jihoon’s expression grim and eyes dark. More than his eyes, his voice was sharp like obsidian, “As captain, if you get involved, this escalates from treason to mutiny. Do you understand?”

“We’ve already had a mutiny.”

Jihoon glared at him. He said what they both knew, “This one is different.”

Jun didn’t say anything, and Jihoon sighed, “Jun, promise me that after we find whoever did this, you will go back to your quarters and let me handle it.”

“I’m coming with you to lock him in the hold.”

“And what if that plays right into their hands?”

“Then let it.” Jun tapped his hat. “I’m the  _ captain _ , Jihoon. Putting myself under house arrest and waiting for something to happen is just as bad.”

This time Jihoon didn’t bother glaring back at Jun; he simply turned and walked off. Jihoon for ‘fine, have it your way.’

As they left the hold, there was no doubt about it. The ring of keys clinked around in Jihoon’s pocket. Something had been and was still going on right under their noses and for quite some time. The question was, could they still stop it? The hatch to the hold closing behind them, Jun hoped their chances weren’t as bad as Jihoon thought.

 

~

 

Searching the crew’s quarters for the missing key was almost too easy. Jihoon had expected indignant pirates blocking the way, belongings strewn about messily, and at least an hour of looking for the small key among the darkness. But most of the crew had already cleared out for something or the other, so there was no overprotective standing in front of certain items. The floorboards could actually be seen.

He raised his eyebrows. By his side, Jun was still scanning the room, eyes flickering from one area to another. Jihoon could almost see the map forming in the captain’s head as he mentally divvied up the crew’s quarters. Always so quick.

Jihoon sighed. And yet, the first mate knew their quarters would have already been stored in Jun’s memory if the captain was down there more often.

He pushed the unpleasant thought aside. It would do no good for either of them to dwell on the past. Instead, he held the lantern in front of him and jerked his head toward a side. “I’ll take this.”

Jun nodded. “I’ll search the other half.”

Jihoon grunted.

In the half dark, each was looking in their own direction, yet aware of the other at their back. It was a strangely comforting feeling, and Jihoon was almost reminded of their boarding school days. Then he kicked himself for thinking of the past again.

They made a good team, Jihoon knew, but Jun hadn’t even had the chance to start canvassing his half when Jihoon found it.

Wanting to check his suspicions, the first place the first mate looked was near S. Coups’ hammock. To his surprise, a glint of metal caught his eye. The key was nestled only halfway into S. Coups’ stack of dirty clothes, as if the man hadn’t even bothered to hide it.

Snatching it out and inspecting the cut of the key under the light of a lantern, Jihoon snarled, “I knew it. Coups.”

Jun walked over quickly, and Jihoon thrust him the key. The captain looked it over and handed it back. “You’re sure it’s him?”

He met Jun’s eyes, some burning feeling racing through his veins, fueled by each time he’d seen the crew flocking around that man, each time he met that man’s eyes. He only hesitated a second.

“I’m sure.”

Jun nodded in the faint light from the lantern, “Let’s go.”

He headed toward the hatch that led to the deck and Jihoon followed, the key tucked away in his pocket.

On the last step of the stairs, he glanced over his shoulder, brows slightly furrowed, only to see little oases of light contained to the lanterns among the darkness. He couldn’t see much, but he felt as if there was something off.


	24. Mutiny Pt. 1

It was getting hotter, Jun noted as he stood waiting on deck, beads of sweat rolling down to his chin.

He watched Jihoon’s short exchange with S. Coups, far enough he couldn’t hear them but not too far that he couldn’t see the irritation in the way Jihoon tapped his foot and snapped at the pirate when he talked. Maybe the heat was getting to him.

It definitely was getting to Jun. Trying to breathe and finding that the air too thin, he loosened the collar of his shirt, almost getting to the second button when Jihoon reappeared in front of him, S. Coups right behind.

“Shall we?” He swept his arm toward the hatch with a tense smile.

“Him first.” Jihoon jerked his head at S. Coups, and they went down the stairs.

Such a pity. If only either of them had heard the ruckus that had been growing and growing a ways off on deck, they might have turned around.

 

~

 

While the captain and his first mate had been busy below deck, a certain few people had taken advantage of their absence on deck.

The cook had been right about the pirates loosening up after several bottles of rum. The first few times Vernon offered, the pirates glanced around for the first mate and then snatched the flask for only a quick gulp. The next few times, they didn’t bother looking. To be fair, some of the more sober ones had jumped a little when the captain and first mate reappeared on deck, but they were gone again.

Now, slipping to sit between two pirates as if he belonged there taking a break on deck, Vernon slammed a pouch of rum against his thigh a little too hard. “Say, what ‘eres wrong with cap’n aye? Runnin’ up and down deck like he’s possessed by the devil but swears we ain’t haunted. What a damn shitty capt’, I say.”

He burped. Loud. He was pretty sure that was what pirates did when they were drunk.

“Aye!” The pirate sitting to his left slammed down his empty flask in agreement and cursed at the sky and its blazing sun. “Cleave me skull asunder, what kinda captain don’t listen to his men? We all know we’ve a ghost, and he be the only one saying nay!”

“An’ what about that strumpet? Keepin’ her all to himself and where’s the ransom?” Vernon added with an overdone slur. The pirates had long forgotten about the ransom deal, and if he hadn’t reminded them, they would never have remembered. But he needed them to remember.

“Aye!” One of the pirates had been tying the rigging nearby, sweat pouring down his back, when the thought had come to him. “Where  _ is _ the ransom?” 

“Aye!”

A few pirates nearby nodded.

“You shouldn’t be askin’ that. We oughta trust the captain!” It was the boy. Vernon was about to open his mouth to disagree when one of the other pirates did it for him.

“What, with what’s been happenin’ ‘ere these days? I’d trust me life to a shark before the cap’n!”

“Aye!”

“Argh!”

Vernon hadn’t needed to add oil to the flame after that.

“He’s right! There ain’t no ransom. It’s all a lie! The cap’n just wants the girl,” one of them sneered.

“We ought to abandon ship! Anyone knows it’s bad luck to have a woman aboard, bad,  _ bad _ luck.”

“Real bad luck,” another agreed.

One of the pirates dropped the mop in his hand, “Mayhaps we have a Jonah on board!” 

“Wavin’ that raggedy white flag whenever he can! Maybe he’s the Jonah!”

Gasps went around deck at the accusation. Almost no one was working anymore. They had stopped to listen, whether standing on deck, hanging from the rigging, or climbing down the masts. In the brief silence, the unbearable heat seemed to build up, making itself known as pirates wiped at their brows and stripped off their shirts. They seemed to be waiting for someone to speak, and Vernon obliged, “Surrenderin’ then losin’ ‘em damn spices and hidin’ ‘em gold pieces!”

The pirate that had accused Jun of being a Jonah agreed, “No wonder the cap’n don’t believe in the devil! He  _ is _ the devil!”

Another pirate chimed in, his voice grave, “And I thought I saw rats scurrying from ‘ere when she sailed. Must’ve been true.”

“Do you think anyone stepped on the Maria left foot first?”

Panic had entered their voices, almost hysteria.

“What about sharks in the water?”

“Or a ghost!”

The commotion grew louder.

“Now all of us are cursed by Neptune!”

“All rotten luck!” There was a chorus of knocks against the hull for luck.

Someone repeated, agitated, “We ought to abandon ship!”

“Do you have a death wish? We hafta get to port first!”

Vernon chewed at his lip as he sat back and watched the unrest grow. The mob was now riled up into a state of sheer panic, and it was almost time to direct it. He just needed to wait for Seungkwan to come back.

 

~

 

Far below deck, Jun and Jihoon had met a dead end.

“What do you mean you’ve never seen this key before?” Jun stared at S. Coups.

They were standing in a triangle down in the hold, S. Coups’ back to the cell. Jun and Jihoon blocked his only means of escape, the stairs to the crew’s quarters. It was dark that far below deck, save for the flickering flame of the lantern in the first mate’s hand. S. Coups didn’t even blink. The pirate shrugged, his arms crossed and chest puffed out. “I ain’t seen that before in my life.”

Jihoon cut in, “You know, I found it right in the middle of your clothes. Are you still going to say you haven’t seen it before?”

The man in question didn’t respond.

Jihoon turned to Jun, the frustration evident on the first mate’s face. “Let’s just lock him up. He’s not going to talk anyways.”

“I said, I didn’t do it.”

“Oh, really?” Jihoon gave him a disbelieving look in the dim lighting, “And are you going to say you had nothing to do with the rumor about me, either? And the rope? And the throwing up? And the crow’s nest?” He rolled his eyes. “Captain, if he’s not obviously the culprit, based on circumstantial evidence, he’s at least our best suspect.”

Coups stared at him like he was mad, “I didn’t do any of those. What are you talking about?”

Jihoon huffed, as if saying ‘see, we’re getting nowhere,’ and Jun sighed. The light flickered back and forth, casting gigantic and miniscule shadows against the hull in succession. The two owners of the shadows continued to argue, each of their eyes not leaving the other, as if determined to force what they saw into reality. The first mate saw the mastermind of the recent happenings. S. Coups saw a lack of evidence. The light wavered between them. They were both right, Jun thought, but Jihoon was more right.

They had no other good suspects, and though it did bother him that the man they were questioning just denied everything they said, a look of puzzlement on his face, the way S. Coups acted screamed danger. A pirate in all the ways Jun was not, the crew flocked to him; they pulled rope with him, they ate grub with him, they swore, gambled, and drank with him. 

The captain closed his eyes for a second, thinking of their options, and then bent down to pick up a coil of rope. He didn’t like this, but it would at least get rid of one worry. “Turn around.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Jihoon glared at their suspect, “Do it.” The threat was left unsaid.

After a few objections from S. Coups, Jun managed to bind the pirate’s hands behind his back with Jihoon’s lantern above them, pulling the final knot as tight as a sailor could. Without warning, he pushed the man forward onto the hay bedding of the cell and swung the barred door closed in front of him. Jihoon locked it with a click.

Coups got up in the cell and pulled himself between the bars of the door. Their shadows were harsh against his skin. The poker face he’d been wearing had started to slip. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it really wasn’t me, I swear. I haven’t even seen that key before. There’s no way.”

Jihoon turned around, taking the light with him.

Jun hesitated. The captain squinted in the hazy darkness, searching S. Coups’ face for any indication that he was lying, but there were none. The pirate’s eyebrows were furrowed, and he looked more and more concerned rather than angry. Trapped in the half darkness, he didn't look like the same man Jihoon had called mutiny-material so many days before.

It was unnerving. Jun turned around sharply.

They couldn’t be wrong, he repeated to himself in his mind as he headed up behind Jihoon, they couldn’t.

“You’re making a mistake!” The man called out.

They left him in the darkness.

 

~

 

A step away from the hatch, the captain paused and turned around, the flame illuminating the sharp edges of his face. “Woozi, what if we’re wrong? What if it’s actually not him?”

The first mate scowled and took another step to be level with Jun. “That’s what they always say. I’m  _ sure _ it’s him. The rumors, the axe, this, he’s been involved in too much of it so far for it not to be him.”

“I don’t know, Woozi-”

The captain’s musing was cut off as a pirate shoved past them down the stairs, glaring at the pair over his shoulder and spitting out a few choice words. He disappeared into the mess hall.

“What was that?” Jun peered after him, eyebrows furrowed.

“Probably just hungry.” Jihoon brought the lantern higher, the glow of the flame a welcome warmth. The uneasy gut feeling had come and mostly gone with the rhythmic rocking of the ship. With the target of his suspicions securely locked away in the lowest level possible, the only escape being the key heavy in Jihoon’s pocket and several kilometers of open sea before the first sighting of land, the first mate was finally feeling in control of the situation.

Standing firmly on the stairs, he looked up to Jun, “We have our guy. You won’t refuse to go back to your quarters now, right?”

The captain was still looking off in the distance, probably thinking about how the series of events in the past days connected together with the man they had in the hold, but when Jihoon raised an eyebrow at him, he cracked a smile. “I suppose I  _ did _ promise.”

Jihoon grimaced, “You did-”

He left the word hanging in the air. At the edge of the glow cast by the lantern, a trio of pirates had started walking toward the stairs, their arrival preceded by raucous laughter and swearing. When they saw the captain and first mate standing there, still silhouettes thrown large and imposing against the hull, they conversed and turned around back the way they came, but not before one of them threw Jihoon a dirty look.

The first mate narrowed his eyes.

They had been taught in boarding school that once was an anomaly, twice a coincidence, and three times a pattern, but Jihoon wasn’t one to take chances on coincidences. He glanced up, and seeing that Jun’s gaze was where the trio had been a second before, eyes sharp, whispered, “Captain.”

Jun turned back to him, “You saw that.”

It was a question. Jihoon nodded, “I saw what you saw.” He motioned to the hatch. “We can’t stand here forever.”

He knew Jun would understand what he really meant.  _ “Something’s up. We need to go on deck.” _

The captain nodded, and in a breath, Jihoon plunged them back into darkness. They wouldn’t need the lantern on deck, and with the unwelcome attention it might bring to them, the first mate would prefer not being seen over being able to see.

As Jun climbed out of the hatch, holding it up for Jihoon, he realized they wouldn’t need to worry about either. The sun was setting. The light blues of day were draining into the ocean, leaving behind the deep, murky violets and bloody reds of night. They stepped forward into the smothering heat, which was still lingering as if it hadn’t figured out where the sun had gone and was waiting for it to come back.

From a ways away, nothing looked wrong. The pirates that weren’t eating were on deck, including Hook and the boy, and some of them seemed to be talking amongst themselves. Fairly typical for an evening aboard  _ The Maria _ .

But as they walked closer, the little details started to come askew. There were empty flasks scattered on deck, and Jihoon took care to avoid the sharp edges of broken pieces. They had been drinking. Jihoon’s eyes narrowed. Where could so much rum have come from? He didn’t remember writing that down in his inventory.

He took another step forward and saw that, though the pirates were on deck, no one was on duty. They had mostly gathered into a group, and their expressions were a mix of seriousness and resentment. Warning bells went off in the first mate’s head, and whatever control he had felt over the situation before slipped out from under his feet.

“Captain-”

Jun stuck out his arm in front of Jihoon, promptly forcing him to a stop and silencing him. He looked sideways. The captain had a finger to his mouth as if to shush him and was listening intently.

Straining his ears, Jihoon tried to hear what Jun was hearing. As it drifted to him, the first mate came to terms with his realization that the uncomfortable feeling in his gut hadn’t disappeared after all.

“Hidin’ this, hidin’ that. Ghosts hauntin’ us,  the devil chasin’ us, and a child for a captain. Lousy ship we’re on, mateys.”

His eyes widened.

“Part of the crew, but we sure ain’t gettin’ part of that treasure. Kept all nicely for our too-good-to-be-a-pirate cap’n.”

There was bitter laughter at that.

“Think Woozi still got some gold?”

“You’d be a fool if ye didn’t.”

“Who’s the real rat, aye?”

He grit his teeth.

“Aye, cheers to that!”

“Cheers!”

“Aye!”

The pirates raised their empty flasks to the burning red sky, and Jihoon grimaced. It wasn’t a smile this time. The glass clinking together against the sunset as a backdrop, he reaffirmed his previous thought. This really was a bloody red, splashed across the deepening sky, dripping past the horizon, and tainting the waves in the water with its dark color. Soon, it would get bloodier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again ^_^
> 
> Sorry for the wait, but I hope school/work/life is treating all of you well and that it will treat me well enough to continue writing haha. For those of you with suspicions from last chapter, let me know what you're thinking now! :)
> 
> Castor


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